


Meet the Okitas

by Arasei



Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, I guess???, and dumb plot twists, dont say i didnt warn you, flowery language, im not gonna lie, my only strong points are in useless dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-03-07 00:53:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 32,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13423254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arasei/pseuds/Arasei
Summary: Kagura felt as if she had had a rather rough day.So far, her stomach had almost turned itself inside out as a result of Earth almost breaking apart, she’d wasted 300 yen on a cherry soda she hadn’t even gotten to drink, found herself lost in a city she had thought she’d known like the back of her hand, and now —“Sougo,” said Hijikata with barely suppressed irritation, “your wife is here to see you.”(or the Time Travel AU nobody asked for)





	1. Lesson 1: "Mothers Shouldn't Drink During The Day!"

Kagura had one arm half up the slot of a vending machine when it suddenly began to feel as if the world was collapsing in on itself.

Though perhaps ‘collapsing’ wasn’t quite the right word; rather, she had the sense of being folded repeatedly in half whilst being simultaneously stretched as the Earth shook to its very core. 

She was starting to feel as if she would throw up from the unpleasantness of it all, until almost as suddenly as the awfulness began —

It stopped.

Startled, Kagura hurriedly attempted to reclaim her arm in case of an aftershock, but after managing to escape the vending machine slot a minute later, it was clear her anxiety was unnecessary. The shaking had yet to occur again, and if the recommencement of their casual activity was any indication, clearly those around her believed it safe to move on as if nothing had happened.

Although, Kagura thought suspiciously, it almost looked as if they had never stopped in the first place. It seemed nearly impossible for her to have been the only one to experience the violent tremors, but after spending a few more moments glancing warily at the people around her, Kagura gave up and merely turned away. 

She had probably just eaten a bad piece of sukonbu.

Redirecting her attention back to the vending machine, Kagura mulled over possible ways to dislodge the soda can trapped between its drawer and the appliance's sheet of glass —she refused to risk her arm again, and kicking the side of the machine was out of the question; she didn’t trust herself to not accidentally break it, and the last time she did so, Tama had refused to speak to her for a week.

Giving the can one last resentful scowl, Kagura hoisted her parasol onto her shoulder and stalked away. She would just have to put up with Shinpachi’s whines of wasted money. 

Occupied with thoughts of the many different ways she could make him suffer in retaliation (several of them involving his being reacquainted with Sadaharu’s teeth), it was only until much later Kagura realised she didn’t recognise the street she was currently walking on.

Spinning wildly in place, Kagura openly gaped at the lack of familiar shops. She could have sworn this was the street she usually took to go home. 

Frowning, she continued down the road and turned into another street, hoping to recognise at least one storefront. When this also happened to be futile, Kagura desperately tried the surrounding streets to no avail. Aside from the everyday sight of vendors yelling bargain deals from their temporary street stalls, women strolling gracefully down the street underneath colourful parasols, and men stumbling around drunk despite it being only midday, there was nothing recognisable about her surroundings.

Feeling more than a little cross, Kagura resigned herself to the disgrace of asking somebody for directions. Conveniently, she spotted a black police uniform out the corner of her eye. It didn’t look like the sadist, and so deeming the man worthy enough to approach, Kagura rudely jabbed his back with her parasol.

“Oi, tax robber!”

She almost dropped the umbrella in shock when he turned around. 

“Mayora?” Kagura sputtered.

It seemed almost impossible for the officer before her to be Hijikata Toshirou. Not only did he look several years older, but the man’s perpetually v-shaped fringe had somehow been tamed into being parted nicely over his forehead; coupled with the noticeable absence of his ever-present cigarette, his usually scruffy look had been transformed into one of elegant class.

“China girl!” said Hijikata, looking similarly shocked to see Kagura. “What the hell did you do to your face?”

_"What?"_

Staring in bewilderment, Hijikata said, “you look like you’re fifteen again.”

“I _am_ fifteen!”

Apparently recovering from his initial surprise, Hijikata merely shook his head. “Y’know, just because you have connections, it doesn’t mean you can use illegal stuff and get off scot-free.”

Kagura started in indignation. “Illegal stuff?”

Hijikata frowned. “Aren’t you using some weird lotion to make yourself look younger?”

“No!”

He appraised her with a frown before seemingly deciding she was not worth it. “Whatever,” he sighed, already turning to leave. “I don’t have time for that stuff anyway.”

Alarmed, Kagura grabbed his arm. “Wait! I need help getting home.”

“Huh?” Hijikata stopped. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Kagura scowled. “I don’t recognise this street,” she said, letting go of his sleeve. “And I don’t know how to get home.”

Hijikata considered this for a moment, and then with a voice lowered in concern, asked, “are you drunk?”

He was met with a smack to the stomach in the shape of Kagura’s parasol. 

“Anyway,” said Kagura, ignoring Hijikata’s loud cursing, “escort me home tax robber!”

“Dammit, woman!” Hijikata gasped, bent forward and clutching his stomach. “I have better things to do than take care of you when you’re wasted!” 

Kagura scowled and made a grand show of lifting her parasol once again, which had its desired effect in prompting Hijikata to hurriedly change his mind. “Okay, okay!” He said, quickly backing away. “Look, I’m being serious when I say I really don’t have time to drop you off all the way to your house —“ he backed away even further when Kagura noticeably narrowed her eyes, “ _but_ I was just heading back to the Shinsengumi! You can come with me and go home with Sougo.”

Kagura made a pronounced noise of disapproval but lowered her parasol. “I guess the sadist will have to do,” she conceded. “Though he’ll probably lead me into a ditch, so when that happens, you and him better watch out, yes?”

Hijikata looked up skyward with a long-suffering expression, but he did not argue. Silently, he beckoned Kagura to follow him and began walking. 

After a while, he asked, “so where’s Souichirou?”

“Who’s Souichirou?”

Hijikata sighed, the sound long-drawn-out and exasperated. “I almost feel sorry for Sougo,” he said pityingly, “you’re a handful when you’re drunk.”

Raising her parasol once again, Kagura punctuated with each swing, “I. Am not. Drunk!”

Having evidently learned from her previous hit, Hijikata merely dodged the attacks and raised his hands in a pacifying sort of manner. “Alright, I believe you!” He quickly promised, though when he ducked his head, Kagura thought she heard him mutter, ‘what kind of mother’ and ‘it’s the middle of the day.’

They had only been walking for a few minutes when the Shinsengumi compound slowly appeared in the distance. Kagura was relieved to see that the building had not changed much from the last time she’d seen it, though the neighbourhood it was in seemed radically different. 

Unperturbed, Hijikata continued past the front gates of the compound and strode into the building. Here, he attempted to peel off from Kagura. “Okay, you know where to go. I’ve got paperwork to do now, so…”

Kagura blinked. “But you said you would take me to the sadist, yes?”

Hijikata groaned. “C’mon, you’ve ‘forgotten’ the way to Sougo’s office too?”

“I’ve never even been to his office!” Kagura protested indignantly.

“Oh for the love of —“ Hijikata grumbled, but nonetheless led her down a hallway, aggressively massaging the bridge of his nose with each step. Eventually, they arrived at a room near the back of the compound, and without bothering to announce himself, Hijikata flung the shoji door to the side. 

“Sougo,” he said with barely suppressed irritation, “your wife is here to see you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anybody watch Meet the Robinsons? If you haven't, know that it's the best movie of all time and if you like where this fic is going, you should most definitely watch the movie that inspired it.
> 
> Also, I was too lazy to tag the many other characters that will probably make an appearance in this story, but let me know which of your Gintama faves you most want to see, and I'll see if I can fit them in.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. Lesson 2: Never Lie About Your Age! You'll Get Into A Lot Of Trouble!

Kagura felt as if she had had a rather rough day.

So far, her stomach had almost turned itself inside out as a result of Earth almost breaking apart, she’d wasted 300 yen on a cherry soda she hadn’t even gotten to drink, found herself lost in a city she had thought she’d known like the back of her hand, and now —

_Wife?!_

She had put up with a lot today, but this, Kagura thought, this took the cake.

“Oi, oi, you bastard!” she screeched, violently shaking Hijikata back and forth by the lapels of his jacket. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Hijikata, shouting incoherently, was saved by a voice calling out from inside the room. “China?”

At the familiar moniker, Kagura whipped her head around in fury, a retort ready on the tip of her tongue. At the sight of the voice's owner, however, the words faltered.

Her mouth fell open.

Okita Sougo was seated behind a desk and staring at Kagura with increasingly growing confusion. But that was not what shocked her — the incarnation of evil she had known in the form of an nineteen-year-old boy had somehow aged by several years, and to her utter horror, Kagura observed that as a man in his late twenties, he was even more attractive since she had seen him last.

On reflex, she released Hijikata’s jacket.

Sougo blinked. “What the hell happened to you?” 

" _Me?_ " Kagura sputtered, “what the hell happened to _you?_ ” 

“What—“

“Actually,” Kagura continued, now feeling a little hysterical, “I should be asking what happened to Kabukicho, yes? _Everything_ is different! The buildings, the streets, and _Mayora_ ,“ she paused, jabbing a finger in Hijikata’s direction, “is old! _Really_ old!”

“Hey!”

“I just thought maybe he ate too much mayonnaise and that the neighbourhood got a facelift, yes! But _you!_ You look like you’re thirty!”

“Twenty-nine,” Sougo muttered.

“So why am I the one being questioned, huh?! And another thing—“

“Okay!” Hijikata interrupted loudly, looking a little desperately at Sougo, “I should be getting back to work!”

“Wait!“ Kagura shouted, making a grab for his sleeve, but Hijikata neatly dodged and absconded from the room, disappearing down the hallway with an inhuman like speed. Scowling, she turned back to Sougo who had now stood up and was carefully making his way over to her. 

Kagura stumbled backwards. "What are you—" she began but was silenced by him taking hold of her shoulder. 

Expecting him to say something, Kagura was surprised when he merely leaned in to inspect her face as if looking for certain discrepancies in her features. Finding herself unable to speak or even move from her spot, Kagura could only open and close her mouth in quiet protest. 

Close up, she could see that as a result of his ‘ageing,’ the height difference between them had grown considerably in Sougo’s favour. Just last week he had merely been half a head taller — now, Kagura barely came up to his shoulder. 

It was an observation that left her both annoyed and flustered.

“Huh,” Sougo finally said, letting go of her shoulder. “It really is you.”

Suddenly aware and overwhelmed by the distinct lack of space between them, Kagura hastily took a step back. “Who else would I be, you stupid sadist!” she snapped.

Sougo raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me for not knowing you’ve been drinking from the fountain of youth.”

Before Kagura could lift her parasol and beat him for speaking nonsense, his eyes widened in sudden alarm. “Souichirou,” he said quickly, seizing Kagura’s arms, “where is he?”

Kagura started. “Look, I already told Mayora I don’t know who that is—“ she began, but Sougo did not stay to listen. Kagura made a loud noise of protest, hurriedly stumbling after him as he rushed out of the office room. “Oi! I’m not done with you yet!”

Ignoring her vehement curses, Sougo continued to run through the Shinsengumi building until they reached the parking lot at the back of the compound. Immediately, he made for a police car near the driveway and swiftly started its engine. Kagura only just made it through the passenger door when the car tore off with a squeal.

Kagura let out a breath of satisfaction before irritably rounding on Sougo. "I _said_ ," she emphasised, "I am not done with you yet. What is going on? Where are we going?"

At his lack of reply, Kagura jabbed him with her parasol. "Oi, I'm talking to you, you bastard!"

But Sougo merely switched gears and drove faster.

Leaning back into her seat with a petulant growl, Kagura crossed her arms and scowled. “Who is this Souichirou anyway?" she huffed, attempting to fill the silence. "The name sounds familiar. Is he a celebrity?

“You really don’t remember him?” Sougo said, finally acknowledging her presence and glancing at her out the corner of his eye. “Nothing at all?”

Kagura puffed out her cheeks in irritation. “I don’t know what you all expect from me, yes. It’s not like if you keep asking about him I’ll suddenly know who he is.”

At this, Sougo’s hands tightened slightly on the steering wheel. “I’m really hoping you’re not the real one.” 

“What are you even _talking_ about?”

Sougo, however, chose not to reply. Kagura thought of punching him in the face but grudgingly conceded that no amount of satisfaction was worth accidentally causing the car to swerve into a building.

Almost ten minutes passed in tense silence, time which Kagura spent periodically glancing at the scenery blurring past, and the man sitting beside her. Though he was wearing his usual mild expression, it was clear that even as a twenty-nine-year-old man, Sougo’s mannerisms had not changed — the subtle crease between his eyebrows and firm set of his mouth were familiar tells that revealed his anxiety, tells which Kagura found did nothing to improve the worry beginning to coil in her stomach.

Suddenly, the car came to a screeching halt. 

Exiting from his side, Sougo immediately moved toward the gate directly situated next to the car. As Kagura hastily followed him down the rough stone path leading from the gate to a house, she gazed admiringly at the pretty green garden revealed upon entering the walled enclosure. Distracted by the fluttering Japanese maple trees, flowering bushes, and wide, blue pond bordering the front-left corner of the building, Kagura was almost left behind when Sougo briskly climbed the porch steps and slid open the front door.

“Papi!” A shrill voice cried happily. Kagura, still outside on the porch outside the house, looked up just in time to see a small body hurtle itself in Sougo’s direction. “Papi, Papi, PAPI!”

Despite only being able to see his back, Kagura did not at all miss the tenderness with which Sougo caught the child in his arms, nor how the coiled tension in his shoulders seemed to bleed out in his relief. 

“Souichi,” he said, and Kagura could almost hear the smile in his voice. “You miss me?”

“Yuh huh!” The boy said eagerly.

“And Mami? Where is she?”

The boy opened his mouth to respond when he caught sight of Kagura over Sougo’s shoulder.

“Mami!” The boy pointed, giggling with delight. “Mami over there!”

Kagura almost fell backwards off the porch. 

“Oi, Sougo!” A woman called from further inside the house. “What are you doing home early? You get fired or something?”

The owner of the voice entered the hallway, wearing pale pink pajamas and tossing long vermillion coloured hair over a slender shoulder. 

An older version of her face started in surprise. "What the hell?" she said upon seeing Kagura.

Kagura blinked. And then shrieked.

She lifted her parasol and fired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is. So difficult. To write Kagura in-character. How do you do it? Nobody knows. Sorry if she, or any other character for that matter, becomes too OOC during this story. If you've got any tips on how to better write the Gintama characters, I'd love to hear them.
> 
> Also, I'm about to write Zura's chapter! How do you want his relationship with Ikumatsu to be written? Friends, married, not married, with child, not with child etc. I'm having trouble deciding, so if you have any preferences, let me know in the comments!


	3. Lesson 3: It's Rude To Ignore People And You Shouldn't Do It

For what was surely the first time in her life, Kagura was at a loss over what to do with her bowl of egg on rice.

After rather ruthlessly firing a heavy barrage of bullets at what looked like her older self (all of which the woman had effortlessly dodged, leaving unsightly holes in the walls), Kagura was having trouble comprehending why she had been politely invited to sit at a dining table in the first place, much less given food.

Sitting on either side of her was Sougo and the older looking Kagura, who since taking a seat opposite each other on the table, had seemingly been engaged in an intense non-verbal conversation, apparently communicating through periodic eye squints, frowns, and various jerkings of the head. It was an unexpectedly irritating sight, and had it been anybody else, Kagura would have beaten them to a pulp and escaped long ago, but as it was, she was far too shocked about the whole situation to leave. 

Souichirou additionally made for a compelling point of interest; though nobody had yet to vocally confirm the relationship, the resemblance between Sougo and the child was far too uncanny for the two to be anything but father and son. While the sight of him bouncing delightedly in his father's lap slightly disparaged the theory (surely no offspring of the sadist would be so cheerful), Souichirou's facial appearance was undoubtedly a rounder, decidedly sweeter copy of Sougo's own, a likeness supported by his inheritance of the man’s sandy blonde hair. 

Admittedly, the similarities could have been passed off as the boy being of some other relation, but there was something to his eyes which did not quite fit Sougo’s genetic line. A brilliant, bright blue, Kagura had seen them in her mother, her brother, and more importantly, in every mirror she had ever come across in her lifetime.

She suddenly felt as if she might throw up. 

With sluggish effort, Kagura nudged the bowl of food in Souichirou’s direction, who clumsily received it with a thrilled squeal. “EGG!” he shouted gleefully, and immediately jammed the accompanying spoon into the bowl, splattering bits of yolk over the table and startling the older Sougo and Kagura out of their silent conversation. 

Clearly grateful for something to do, Sougo immediately reached for a napkin and began to mop away the spilt egg. This left older looking Kagura with the awkward task of speaking with her younger counterpart. 

“You’re not hungry?” she asked.

“I don’t like egg on rice," Kagura lied.

The older Kagura raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

Unnerved, Kagura began to shift uncomfortably in her seat, warily rubbing her neck and feeling underneath her fingertips the slight cut Sougo had imparted upon drawing his katana to her neck when she had begun rather impulsively firing bullets from her parasol. It was already fading into a scar, but the murderous look in Sougo's eyes had yet to leave her memory — though she had managed to grab the blade in time, and the older Kagura had stopped him from leaving more than a shallow cut, she still felt decidedly on edge. Never had Kagura been at the receiving end of that particular gaze, and coupled with the distinct absence of her purple umbrella (wrestled out of her hands by Sougo), she could not help but feel as if she were smack in the middle in a lion's den.

Crossing her arms, the older Kagura sighed. “Well,” she said, pretending not to notice Kagura's unease, “I think we have some oil in the backyard. Would you like that instead?”

“She’s not a robot,” Sougo said, ignoring Kagura’s look of utter disgust at the proposal. “I checked.”

The older Kagura scowled. “ _You_ ," she said, an eyebrow twitching, "are not helping. We're supposed to be figuring out why she looks like me, and you have not made even one suggestion, yes.”

Sougo shrugged, helping Souichirou better scoop a helping of rice. “I’ve run out of suggestions. The only reason she's even here is because I thought she was you — but you’re fine, and that’s not the case, so I don’t really care about the fake copy anymore. It’ll get messy if you kill her, so if you’re going to do it, do it outside.”

Kagura opened her mouth to express exactly _what_ Sougo could do outside when she belatedly registered the rest of what he had said. “I am not a fake!” she said, offended. “In fact, how do you know you are not correct and that _she_ ,” Kagura pointed a finger accusingly at her older self, “is not the fake, yes?”

In the midst of him making strange faces to amuse Souichirou, Sougo said, “because the real one is fatter, obviously.”

Leaning sharply to the side, Sougo managed to only just narrowly avoid the butter knife thrown in his direction, his mild expression unchanging as the shiny blade arced gracefully past his head and impaled itself neatly in the wall behind him. “You see?” Sougo said unperturbed, paying no attention to the older Kagura’s seething gaze. “That’s how I know she’s the real one.”

Kagura leaned back into her seat with a scowl. She had to grudgingly concede that it was not entirely an ineffective method of evaluation — had she been in the older Kagura’s shoes, she probably would have done the same thing.

At that moment, the group heard heavy footsteps trudge in from the backyard and increase in volume before arriving at the dining room door in the form of a large white dog.

“Sadaharu!” Kagura exclaimed, jumping from her seat to meet the Inugami at the door. Similarly excited to see Kagura, Sadaharu responded to her tight hug by enthusiastically licking her face.

Looking up interestedly at the sudden commotion, Souichirou spotted the dog and immediately began squirming in Sougo's arms. "SADAHARU!" He shouted, reaching out to the dog with outstretched hands. 

“Huh,” said the older Kagura. “Sadaharu likes her.”

Sougo, attempting to gently wrestle Souichirou back into his lap, merely replied, “so?”

Frowning, the woman across him remarked, “ _so,_ it means she’s telling the truth about her not being a fake, yes?”

Sougo paused, a momentary respite which Souichirou quickly took advantage of to wriggle out of his father’s grasp. “Sadaharu!” the boy yelled, running to greet the Inugami.

"Souichi!" the older Kagura chastised, intercepting the toddler and scooping him up into her arms. Glancing at Kagura with dubious eyes, she said, "stay with Mami for now, okay?"

"But I want Sadaharu!" Souichirou whined.

Sougo, meanwhile, had not noticed the interaction at all. “Oi, young China,” he said, waiting until Kagura had turned around. “How old are you?”

“Fifteen,” Kagura said, gently nudging Sadaharu’s nose away.

Sougo hummed. "Must have been given a lot of presents for your birthday. You get anything good?"

Kagura narrowed her eyes in suspicion but nonetheless gave the question some thought. “Gin-chan got me a cute parasol with cherry blossoms on it, and Shinpachi and Anego gave me a really nice pink dress..." she stopped, looking highly distrustful. "Why do you want to know?"

Ignoring her, Sougo glanced inquisitively at the older Kagura. 

"It's true," the woman confirmed. 

At this, Sougo stood up and went to another room, coming back with a newspaper which he thrust under Kagura's nose. "The date," he said. "Is it correct?"

Frowning, Kagura glanced at the offending object. A normal Edo newspaper, it featured the usual scandal pieces on the front page ("Goemon! _Han Samu's_ Leader Is Found Having Another Passionate Affair!!!), and a date printed neatly at the top right-hand corner. Kagura blinked. "It's wrong," she said confusedly. "Like it skipped forward by—"

"Ten years?" Sougo supplied expectantly. Kagura numbly nodded her head.

Sougo tossed the newspaper onto the table with an air of satisfaction. "Well," he said, moving towards the kitchen, “that’s that."

"Oi!" Kagura barked, grabbing the paper. "I don't understand. What's wrong with it?”

"Mami!" Souchirou wailed, wriggling in the older Kagura's arms. "I wanna play with Sadaharu!"

"Sougo," called the older Kagura, "are you really sure about this?"

"You said it yourself,” came Sougo’s reply from the kitchen. “Sadaharu likes her.”

"Ma- _mi_!"

The older Kagura sighed. "Okay, okay," she said, finally setting the squirming Souichirou onto the floor. "You can play."

Kagura, forced to sidestep out of the way as Sadaharu and Souichirou bounded out the dining room, angrily waved her newspaper in the air. “What is going on?! Somebody explain this to me!”

Ignoring her, Sougo called out to the older Kagura, “Souichi sleeps in our room tonight.”

The woman scoffed. “Just how little do you trust me?” 

“I trust you,” said Sougo over the sound of a fridge opening, “I don’t trust younger you.”

“HEY!” Kagura yelled, smacking the paper against the table for maximum effect. “Aren’t you are forgetting something?!”

The older Kagura, who was now clearing up the table, briefly looked up. “Oh yes,” she said. “Welcome to the future.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You don't know true pain until you're staring at the last chapter of Gintama, unable to read it because it's in Japanese D:  
> I don't know about you guys, but the earliest English translation for me comes out on Tuesday, and until then, I'm going to have to dodge every spoiler I can. It's been a long road, but hopefully, our favourite people will have a happy ending.
> 
> On another note, sorry it took so long to post such a short and anticlimatic chapter. I originally wrote it on Pages to be copied and pasted on a03, but during the editing process, I ended up rewriting the stupid thing. I also write in bursts, which basically means that for a total duration of ten minutes, I'm able to bang out a few solid paragraphs and write like I'm on a roll — after that, my inspiration dries up and I have to take a break and wait for that inspiration to recharge.
> 
> And if you couldn't hate me more, I've also recently taken up knitting! While incredibly frustrating, it's also strangely addictive, and predictably, the new hobby has been interfering with my writing schedule. When you eventually take up your pitchforks and hunt me down, please spare my new scarf — it's the ugliest thing ever made but it's also my pride and joy.
> 
> Anyway! I hope that regardless of its disappointing nature, you were able to enjoy this new chapter! To apologise for taking so long, I'll post the next one soon (probably sometime next week). 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	4. Lesson 4: Don't Make Light Of Old Men, They Can Be Very Wise

“Your past self, huh?” Gintoki drawled, a finger stuck firmly up his nose. From what Kagura could see, the older man had scarcely changed, something for which she was endlessly grateful for.

“She looks like a cheap knockoff.”

Or maybe not.

“You shitty old man!” Kagura bellowed, reaching over the desk to grab Gintoki’s yukata. “You wanna die, huh?!”

The older Kagura hastily rushed to help. “It’s true,” she said to Gintoki, yanking the teenager away from his desk and sitting her on one of the two sofas not currently occupied by Sadaharu. “Sougo and I asked her questions only I would know, and she was able to answer them all, yes.”

Kagura shot up in her seat. “She and the sadist are married, by the way! _And_ ,” she pointed accusingly at Souichirou who was happily roaming the Yorozuya flat with excited fervour, “they have a kid! Did you know that?!”

“Baldy and I were the ones who gave you away at the wedding,” said Gintoki indifferently, flicking a booger to the side. “If I didn’t already know by now, we would have far bigger problems. Plus, I’m Sougo’s godfather.”

“ _Souichirou’s_ godfather,” the older Kagura corrected. To her past self, she added with an expression of long-suffering, “he mixes up their names on purpose.”

All of a sudden, Kagura was violently reminded of why she had thought the name sounded familiar. Amongst various other monikers such as Sofa-kun, she now remembered that ‘Souichirou’ was what Gintoki regularly called the sadist when pretending he couldn’t remember the officer’s name.

As if to prove her older counterpart’s point, Gintoki said to Kagura, “before you say anything, both me _and_ baldy tried to stop you from marrying that shitty Souichirou brat, but you threatened to rip off our balls if we kept interfering; so really," he paused, looking smug, "this is your fault.” 

At that moment, Souichirou, returning from his exploration of Gintoki’s bedroom, eagerly approached the desk with outstretched arms, yelling, “Gin, Gin, GIN!”

The older man gave a harassed sigh, the sound long drawn out and exasperated. With resignation, he moved the telephone off his desk and handed it to Souichirou, who promptly shrieked in delight. Carrying the telephone to Sadaharu’s couch, the boy began pressing random numbers into the keypad, picking up the handset and speaking unintelligible words into the speaker as he did so. 

Gintoki turned to Kagura once again. “When you go back to your own time, do poor old Gin-san a favour and stay away from the tax robber,” he said, shooting Souichirou a glance. “Not bringing this devil spawn into the world will be the greatest gift you could give me.” 

Despite his harsh words, Kagura knew the white-haired samurai was not fooling anybody; Gintoki looked at Souichirou with far too much love to mean it.

“Speaking of which,” the older Kagura interjected, “we need to find a way to return younger me to her proper time. We don’t know what could happen if she stays.”

“Oh? And where is that good-for-nothing husband of yours during this time of familial crisis?”

The older Kagura rolled her eyes. “ _Sougo_ ,” she said pointedly, “is at work. Mayora called and yelled at him for slacking, so he went back to slip laxative in his mayonnaise.” Though her tone of voice was casual, there was something almost akin to pride in the woman’s eyes. 

Not for the first time that day, Kagura was overcome with the urge to vomit.

Gintoki, however, looked pleased. “So the brat _can_ be useful,” he said with an air of exaggerated surprise. “That’s a first.”

Before the older woman could throw the sofa beneath her at his head, Gintoki smoothly changed the subject. “Why don’t you just go back in time the way you came?" he asked Kagura. "That would save us a lot of legwork.”

Kagura sunk into her seat with a pout. “I already told older me and the sadist that I don’t know how I got here," she grumbled. "There was just a lot of shaking and suddenly everything looked different.”

Gintoki looked to the ceiling in despair. “Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.”

“ _But,_ " persisted Kagura hopefully, "this is the future, yes? We should be able to buy time machines from the supermarket.”

“Oi, oi. They don’t exactly grow on trees, y'know. Time machines didn’t exist in your time, and they sure as hell don’t exist now." Shaking his head regretfully, he added, "I should never have let you watch those Terminator movies. All they did was give you unrealistic standards."

With a sigh, the older Kagura stood up. “You’re useless, Gin-chan,” she complained, walking over to Souichirou and lifting him up in her arms. “You really don’t know anything that could help?"

Gintoki stuck a pinkie back into his nose. “The Yorozuya can handle anything. Except for time travel.”

The older Kagura made of a noise of derision. " _Useless_ ,” she repeated with emphasis, and pranced importantly out of the room, Souichirou loudly wailing for the telephone as they went. Lazily climbing to his feet, Sadaharu ambled after them.

“Don’t forget to be here early tomorrow!” Gintoki called out, clicking his tongue at the sound of the front door slamming shut in reply. 

Kagura made to follow when Gintoki suddenly spoke up. "Just so you know," he said, "I've never liked libraries."

She stopped in surprise, looking back to see the older man propping his feet up on the desk. "They're too quiet for somebody like me," he continued, "but they can be pretty useful. Did you know they keep old newspapers from years back?"

"No," said Kagura, suspiciously. "Was I supposed to?" 

Gintoki shrugged. "I guess not," he said, flicking away another booger. "But those newspapers might say stuff about time travelling and weird shaking. Who knows.”

"Oi, oi," said Kagura, a grin slowly pulling at her mouth. "A fair maiden like me can't just go through those dusty things by myself, yes."

"What fair maiden?" Gintoki scoffed. "I don't see any." 

Kagura threw the telephone left behind on the floor at his head. 

" _Agh!_ " shouted Gintoki, ducking into his chair. "Dammit, you monster, I'm trying to help you! And don't throw things at old people, it's rude!"

"If you were really going to help out, then go through those newspapers for me," Kagura said haughtily, turning up her nose for added effect. "It's too boring a job for someone like me, yes." 

She waited for another retort, but to her surprise, it didn't come. When she curiously looked back, Gintoki was leaning into his seat, absentmindedly rubbing his injured head with something like pleasant nostalgia in his eyes. 

"Gin-chan?" Kagura questioned tentatively.

Gintoki heaved out a sigh, meaning to sound irked, but not quite achieving the desired effect. "You brat," he said, unable to hide the affection in his voice. “I've missed you."

The hug Kagura gave him was quick, but the warmth from Gintoki’s arms circled reassuringly around her back would stay long after that. 

"I'm still not helping you look through those papers," said Gintoki, his voice muffled into Kagura's shoulder. "I'm too old for that stuff. Gin-san just wants to lay around and read _Jump_ , and—Ow, _OW!_ " 

Kagura let go of his arm with an innocent expression. “See ya, Gin-chan,” she grinned, and skipped out of the Yorozuya office to the sound of Gintoki's exaggerated moans of pain, comforted in the knowledge that even ten years into the future, her Earth-father would never change.

To Kagura’s surprise, her older counterpart was waiting patiently outside on the balcony, comfortingly bouncing Souichirou in her arms as Sadaharu licked away his tears. “I want phone,” the toddler whimpered.

“We have a phone at home, yes,” the older Kagura said firmly, before looking up. “Ah, there you are,” she said to Kagura, and then asked, “did Gin-chan say anything useful?”

“I guess,” Kagura said, sliding close the shoji door behind her. “You’re still here.”

The older Kagura raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know the way back to the house,” she reminded. “You’re staying with us tonight, remember?” Not waiting for an answer, she moved to descend the staircase by the side of the building. “Shall we go see the old lady again before we go?” 

Kagura shuddered at the thought. Much like Gintoki, the three proprietors of Snack Otose had also remained somewhat static in the ten years that had apparently passed between Kagura’s time and the now future — Tama, aside from her shorter haircut, had been her sweet and blunt usual self, and ignoring the fine moustache Catherine had grown around her mouth, the feline Amanto was similarly a familiar constant. Otose had likewise been the same cranky, cigarette smoking old woman Kagura had always known (apart from the several new age lines and greying streaks of hair), but unfortunately, this also meant that her unrelenting nature was unchanged. 

While Souichirou played tag with Sadaharu and generally wreaked havoc inside the bar, the two Kaguras had been left to the mercy of Otose’s incessant questioning, Catherine's unhelpful comments, Tama’s occasional interjections, and suggestions made by all three women in regards to the matter of Kagura returning to her own time.

“If the idiot upstairs pays his rent, maybe the universe won’t know what to do with itself and send you back to the past,” Otose proposed.

“I could develop a virtual reality set in the past for you to live in, should you not be able to return,” offered Tama.

“Who cares,” said Catherine.

This had continued for almost an hour before the older Kagura had managed to grab Souichirou and abscond from the bar to Gintoki’s apartment upstairs with Sadaharu and Kagura at her heels.

Thinking of this, Kagura said, “I think I’ll pass.”

Her future self seemed to share the same sentiment. “Yes, I think that is best,” she agreed, hopping down the last step of the apartment staircase. Hoisting Souichirou to better rest comfortably against her hip, she waited expectantly for both Kagura and Sadaharu to join her at ground level. 

She smiled.

“Let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun, dun, DUN!!! 
> 
> Both Gin and a plot finally make an appearance! What could possibly happen next?! At the risk of sounding awfully like a Gintama preview, find out in 'Lesson 5: Don't Talk While You Eat! Or Is It The Other Way Around?' 
> 
> If there are characters you especially want to see in this story, let me know and I'll see what I can do! And if you have any criticisms regarding the portrayal of the characters already introduced, then be sure to let me know and I'll do my best to improve :)
> 
> Once again, thank you for taking the time to read! 
> 
> (also I have only just recently discovered that chapter 669 of Gintama is not in actuality the manga's final chapter, and I am both relieved and disappointed)
> 
> EDIT: I recently spoke to a friend about the meaning behind Gin's 'I've missed you' to Kagura, and feel like I should clarify to all of you what that statement was meant to signify.  
> Kagura and older Kagura are very much the same person, but people change as they grow; I, for example, am not the same exact girl I was when I was 15. When Gin says 'I've missed you,' that is not to say he prefers younger Kagura to older Kagura, but that he misses the small and innocent child she used to be. That aside, he loves the older Kagura as much as he does her younger counterpart, and even after her becoming a mature woman, wife, and mother, he still very much treats her like his own daughter.
> 
> I'm sorry if any of you were misled; their relationship is a difficult one to write through dialogue alone, but hopefully I was able to carry at least some aspects of it across. And please, please, please, if you have any issues with the portrayal of the characters, do not be afraid to let me know!


	5. Lesson 5: Don't Talk While You Eat! Or Is It The Other Way Around?

Dinner that night was a strange affair. 

Admittedly, Kagura only began to notice once the meal was almost over — confused, tired, and hungry, she had spent the better part of dinner entirely focused on inhaling the feast laid out before her (from the surplus of food, it was evident that ten years had done nothing to future Kagura's appetite, and being part Yato, it seemed that Souichirou ate almost just as much as his mother). It had not even occurred to Kagura to pay attention to the family seated around the table until halfway through her last (sixth) plate of yakitori when she heard, "—and I definitely blew off his leg this time.” 

Immediately interested, Kagura made sure to chew more quietly in order to better listen into the conversation. Sougo, around a mouthful of rice, continued, “when you see him next time, be prepared.”

Kagura’s older self scoffed in clear derision. “Zura’s an idiot,” she said haughtily, “but he is also too cool to lose to somebody like you, yes.”

“I’m your husband, you traitor.”

“Zura!” Souichirou chimed in from his high chair at the end of the table. “And Asahi! Can we go see?”

The older Kagura affectionally patted his head. “That’s a good idea. Why don’t we go tomorrow?”

Sougo flung a meat bun at the woman seated across him. “Oi. What kind of policeman allows his kid to have a playdate with a terrorist?”

The meat bun, caught neatly by the older Kagura, was thrown back in Sougo’s direction with double the force. “You can’t call the man who reverses the Shinsengumi’s toilet paper rolls so they come out backwards a terrorist, yes?"

“That’s terrorism, China. He’s _terrorising_ us.”

“Your ass can’t take it?”

At this, the meat bun in Sougo’s hand was spitefully returned with triple the power and bitterness, exploding in the older Kagura’s palm with a dissatisfying squelch. Souichirou clapped delightedly, reaching for the meat chunks scattered along the table with small, eager fingers. 

“Punk chihuahua,” the older Kagura scowled, grabbing another meat bun and savagely throwing it at her husband with almost half of her Yato strength. Sougo dodged, causing the projectile to collide into the wall behind him and create a hole through which the bun dramatically sailed into the backyard. Sadaharu, apparently dissatisfied with his dog bowl, immediately perked up from his corner of the dining room and trotted after it.

“Anyway,” the older Kagura continued, pretending nothing had happened, “Zura is obviously able to take care of a kid. Even if I wasn't there tomorrow, he would be fine.”

Sougo, also acting as if he had not been just mere millimetres away from certain death, raised an eyebrow. “Even if? You said tomorrow you had a job with Danna and Megane.”

“I do. But while I am doing that job, younger me will be with Souichi, so technically I will also be with him, yes?”

“Oi!” Kagura shouted, finally entering the conversation. “Don’t just volunteer me to babysit your kid!”

“When you think about it, he is also _your_ kid,” the older Kagura pointed out smugly. “And don’t complain, you need to see Zura anyway. He probably knows something about this time travel stuff.”

Sougo made a face but gave up. “Fine. I know when I’m beat. I’ll drop them off tomorrow.”

“Oh?” The older Kagura smirked, “suddenly so eager, huh? But no deal. I know you just want me to tell you Zura’s latest hideout.”

“Tch. You’re the wife of a policeman, y’know? It’ll look bad if people find out you're aiding and abetting terrorists.”

“You know what is a crime? Slipping poison into your superior’s coffee, yes?”

“It was just potassium cyanide, he’ll be fine…”

Kagura sat back in her seat, mesmerised by the easy, seamless banter exchanged by the couple. She watched as Sougo cleaned Souichirou’s hands and mouth and call the woman across him a gluttonous pig. She listened to her future self counteract the insult with ‘spineless moron’ as she brushed the scattered meat chunks not eaten by Souichirou onto a plate to give to Sadaharu. The entire interaction seemed to her both so familiar and so different and effortlessly _warm_ that suddenly, Kagura began to feel as if she were intruding on an intimate occasion, leaving her decidedly uncomfortable.

The sensation remained with her even far into the night, preventing her from falling asleep. As Kagura better shifted into the futon laid out for her, she thought of the last time she had had such trouble going to sleep. With fondness, she recalled sharing Gintoki’s room and the 'Make You Cry In Three Minutes' story told over the radio she had insisted on turning on. Squeezing her eyes shut, Kagura attempted to remember the narrative told over the programme, managing to recollect something about a girl and her pet dog. 

Much to her irritation, however, thinking of the familial tale merely brought back thoughts of Okita Sougo and her turbulent confusion, and admitting defeat, Kagura rolled over in her futon towards the sleeping figure beside her. 

“Hey. Old me. Wake up.” She punctuated each word with a poke to the side of the futon, until eventually, she could hear the beginnings of aggravated moaning.

“What do you want?” the older Kagura groaned, burying her head further into her pillow. 

Kagura rolled her eyes. “I want to talk. That’s why you made me sleep with you in the same bedroom, yes? To have some girl-bonding time?”

The older Kagura yawned hugely. “You sound like Soyo-chan,” she said grumpily, but her imperceptible smile suggested she did not necessarily think it a bad thing. The woman resignedly shifted in her futon so that she was now facing her younger counterpart. “And actually, I am here to keep an eye on you, yes. Sougo is worried that if you do turn out to be an assassin, you’ll throw Souichi over a bridge — staying with you was the only way I could get him to shut up.”

“I’m not an assassin!” Kagura said, affronted. “And even if I was, I would not throw a kid off a bridge! That bastard — he’s just trying to push his sadistic tendencies onto people, yes.”

The older Kagura snorted in amusment. “Relax. I'm sure it was just a lame excuse to get me to sleep in another room, yes. Lately, he has been complaining about waking up on the floor every morning — apparently I kick him off the futon at night.” She paused, mildly shaking her head. “He really is a bastard.”

Kagura blinked in surprise. “So you agree with me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Kagura sputtered. “If you know he is a bastard, then why did you marry him?”

“Tax benefits,” her future said seriously. At Kagura’s aghast expression, the woman cackled meanly into her sheets, stopping only when Kagura began to smack her repeatedly with a pillow. “I’m kidding!” she yelped, attempting to grab the pillow. “I didn’t even know about the tax stuff until after we got married, yes!”

“Then what was it?” Kagura whined. “Was it the way he proposed?”

The older Kagura snorted. “Ah, the proposal,” she reminisced with a chortle, propping up her cheek in her hand. “No, that was terrible. It was after one of our sparring sessions — he threw the ring at my face and said, ‘marry me miss piggy.’”

Kagura ground her teeth, feeling entirely self-righteous. "And?" she demanded. "What did you do?"

“I broke two of his ribs,” her future self said proudly. “And then I said yes.”

Kagura blinked. “But… why would you do that?" she insisted with dismay. "Gin-chan doesn’t even like him!"

The older Kagura tilted her head to the side. “What makes you think he doesn’t?” she asked curiously. “Gin-chan says a lot of things, but he would not have let me put on my wedding dress, let alone walk me down the aisle if he didn’t like my husband, don’t you think?”

Unable to deny it, Kagura instead pursed her lips together in displeasure. “That still does not explain why you still said yes.”

In the dark, she could see the older Kagura’s eyes soften as she looked to the ceiling of the room, seemingly staring at something far beyond it. “I said yes,” she began, her voice somehow both clumsy and simultaneously sure, “because I like who I am when I am with him.” 

After a few moments of silence, she unflinchingly added, “plus, the sex is amazing.”

Kagura gave a loud shriek of horror and immediately moved to block her ears with the pillow beneath her head. The older Kagura laughed uproariously at her response, her whole body shaking underneath the futon with the strength of it. “One time,” she gasped in between peals of laughter, “we used handcuffs and —“

Kagura did not attempt to hear the rest. Having failed as a makeshift noise-cancelling instrument, the pillow was instead used to relentlessly beat her older self with a vengeance fuelled by mortification and disgust. 

“Trust me,” the woman in question cackled, half-heartedly defending herself, “when you get back to your own time, you’ll see, yes.”

At this, Kagura concluded the best way of fully communicating her displeasure was to not respond at all, and so with a final huff, she sulkily returned her pillow to its proper position and buried herself into her futon.

The older Kagura chuckled but nonetheless left her alone. After several minutes of silence, Kagura began to hear the opening notes of gentle snoring and realised the older woman had already fallen back asleep, most likely from having tired herself out by laughing. “Seriously,” Kagura muttered and forced herself to shut her eyes and follow suit. 

_Maybe when I wake up_ , she mused, _this will have all turned out to just be some horrible dream_. There was surely no other explanation; it was impossible for her to have actually married the sadist in the future. Being civil with someone like Okita Sougo was already a strenuous activity — to marry him as if they were any other ordinary couple was a concept entirely unfathomable.

They were not normal people, and she was sure they would never know how to be. 

Except; they didn't try to be.

Despite being older, married, and with child, nothing much between her older self and future Sougo had changed — ten years later, they were still biting out familiar barbs, throwing chopsticks at each other with deadly precision, and making impossible threats with ferocious grins. It was their standard routine, but with a change in the form of affection and love afflicting their every consonant and vowel, every smile, every glance.

They were not normal, but this was their ordinary.

_I like who I am when I am with him._

As Kagura finally began to drift off to sleep, her last coherent thought was of how dinner that night had been a strange affair, not because anything had been out of place, but because she had seen her future, and it had been the most natural thing in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kagura in denial about her feelings for Sougo is the best kind of Kagura.
> 
> Also, I should've mentioned this before, but if it weren't already glaringly obvious, Souichirou (though of my creation) was based on Loli_Samurai's interpretation of what Sougo and Kagura's child would look like. If you've never heard of Loli_Samurai, drop whatever you're doing and look them up, because their Okikagu art is honestly of God status. Granted, it's all in Japanese, but when you see those blessed drawings, it won't even matter.
> 
> I also love how everybody has just come to the silent agreement that if Sougo and Kagura were to have a child, he would most definitely be named Souichirou. I know that I was definitely inspired by other Okikagu child fics that I've read before, and honestly? It couldn't have been a better name.
> 
> And I'm sorry for the long wait! The ending was not exactly what I wanted it to be, but I hope you enjoyed the overall chapter nonetheless.
> 
> Until next time!


	6. Lesson 6: Ramen Restaurants Are The Best Kind Restaurants

“China, pass the sugar.”

“Hm. Prince Baka’s man-eating giraffe has escaped.”

“Oi. Pass the sugar.”

“Tch, ‘evaded capture.’ What are the police even doing, yes?”

“They’re busy trying to get their wives’ attention. Pass the sugar, China.”

“Last seen downtown, how interesting.”

“What is this, huh? Did you go deaf during the night? Oi, China, China, Chin—“

Kagura slammed a fist on the table. “ _Shut up!_ ” she yelled over the rattling of plates and bowls. “It’s too early for this, you brats!”

Sougo blinked. “Ah. The brat just called us brats.”

The older Kagura hummed, not looking up from her newspaper. “The giraffe is pink. How cute.”

Kagura ripped the paper out of the woman’s hands. 

"Hey!" her older self complained. “I was reading that!” 

As if to emphasise how little she cared, Kagura made a point of handing the newspaper to Sadaharu, who promptly began tearing it to pieces with his teeth. Souichirou, watching from his high chair, grabbed at the paper shower with glee.

“It. Is too. _Early,_ ” Kagura repeated with finality. “And if you were just going to read the newspaper, why bother waking me up at the ass crack of dawn, yes?”

“It’s 8:00 am, young China,” Sougo said, giving up and reaching for the sugar shaker himself. “Most normal people are already awake at this time.” Kagura saw that as he grabbed the shaker, he subtly scattered salt from another over the older Kagura’s pancakes. 

Kagura opened her mouth to warn her future self (and ultimately sit back and enjoy the sight of the older woman ripping her husband to pieces), but midway, she was interrupted by what was surely her fiftieth yawn that morning. Remembering being forced to wake up at seven, she spitefully changed her mind. “What is everybody doing up so early anyway?” she said instead. 

“Well, I need to go to work,” said the sadist, watching with merciless pleasure as the older Kagura bit into her pancake and noticeably winced. “That’s what you do when you’ve got a job, young China.”

Gagging slightly, but otherwise none the wiser to Sougo's prank, the older Kagura coughed, “and I have a job with the Yorozuya. We’re helping an old man move house.”

Kagura perked up in her seat. “Eh? So you still do odd jobs with them?”

The older Kagura merely chugged down a glass of water in response. “Disgusting,” she muttered, shaking her head. Sougo looked away, cutting Souichirou's food into bite-sized pieces with an expression of mirth. Unaware, the older Kagura said to her younger self, “when we get requests. Though most of the time it ends up just being Gin-chan and I. If the job is easy enough I’ll bring Souichirou along; otherwise, we walk around Edo with Sadaharu. Isn’t that right?” The last part of this was directed at Souichirou, who with a mouth covered in sauce, lisped, “we went to a park yesterday!”

Sougo, struggling to contain his amusement as the older Kagura picked at her pancakes, said to Souichirou, “that sounds fun. Did you break another slide?”

“Yuh huh, and Mami bought sukonbu for me!”

This went mostly ignored by Kagura who was still thinking of what her future self had said. “What do mean by most of the time it is just you and Gin-chan?” she asked, eyebrows drawing together in confusion. “What is Shinpachi doing?”

“Ah, him,” Sougo interjected, “he’s dead.”

The older Kagura flung her salted pancake at his face. “Don’t just go making things up, you bastard!” 

Sougo, peeling the pancake off his face, said, “fine; he’s not dead. But after ten years, his nagging has gotten worse, so most of the time you end up wishing he was.”

The woman across him made a face. “I guess that’s true,” she conceded, and then amended, “sometimes.” To Kagura, she continued, “Shinpachi and Anego reopened that dojo of theirs a few years ago, yes — since then, Pattsuan has been busy as a kendo teacher, so he doesn’t always help out as much as he wants to.”

Kagura leaned back into her seat, slightly morose over the idea that she didn’t spend as much time with her family as she used to. “I see,” she said, disappointed. “I guess… it can’t be helped.”

In seeing her despondency, the older Kagura reassuringly laid a hand on her younger self’s shoulder. “Just because we might have moved on in our lives, it doesn’t mean we have changed, yes,” the woman said knowingly. At Kagura’s questioning look, she grinned. “We don’t see each other every day, but we will always be family.”

Kagura huffed. “It’s not like I was upset,” she grumbled, but felt cheered up nonetheless. “I was just worried is all.”

“Yes, yes, I know all about that, you tsundere,” said the older Kagura with an affectionate eye roll. “but you know, you shouldn’t forget that nothing will break us up — we are the Yorozuya after all.”

Sougo scoffed, standing up and carrying his plate to the kitchen. “You guys are a pain in the ass is what you are.”

The older Kagura’s gentle smile suddenly rearranged itself into her usual smug grin. “All police are scum,” she sang cheerfully after her husband. 

“Said the policeman’s wife,” Sougo shot back from the kitchen, and with his reply, Kagura felt everything was back to normal. 

Sougo came back into the dining room rolling his eyes. “Anyway,” he said, grabbing the Shinsengumi jacket hanging from the back of his chair, “I’m going now. Young China, keep my son safe from those stupid terrorists.”

“Ah, ah,” the older Kagura tutted, waving a white silk scarf she had produced from seemingly nowhere. “You are forgetting something, yes?”

Sougo blinked, touching the empty space at his collarbone where his cravat usually rested. “Ah. Right.” 

He walked over to the older Kagura who stood up to wrap the scarf around his neck. Due to their considerable height difference, Kagura noticed that Sougo had to slightly bend down so that the smaller woman would have an easier time tying the cravat; it was such an endearing and obviously oft repeated routine that Kagura felt should she be forced to look any longer, she would spontaneously hurl.

Fortunately for her, it was soon over. “There,” the older Kagura announced, patting the scarf with prideful satisfaction. “All done, yes.”

“Finally,” Sougo sighed, gently tugging at the neatly tied cravat. “You always take too long.”

The older Kagura’s mouth fell open in outrage, but whatever retort she was about to make was swallowed sharply upon Sougo bending down and kissing her soundly on the lips.

Later, when Kagura thought back on the moment, she would remember Sougo’s soft smile as he pulled away and realise that he did not mean his complaint. Currently, however, she was too busy throwing up breakfast and last night's dinner to properly pay attention.

Sougo’s smile pulled into a satisfied grin. “You taste like salt.”

The older Kagura’s eyes flashed, but anticipating her fist, Sougo easily dodged the punch and retreated to the other side of the table. Slipping on his jacket, he swiftly manoeuvred around Kagura’s sprays of vomit (“Disgusting,” he remarked with a smirk) and passed Souichirou, fondly ruffling the boy’s hair as he did so. “Bye, Souichi,” he said.

"Papi, give kiss like Mami," Souichirou whined, reaching up to his father with outstretched arms. In response, Sougo bent down and playfully blew a raspberry against Souichirou's cheek. The toddler squealed in delight, and if Kagura hadn't still been throwing up, she might have been inclined to find the entire exchange — dare she say — _cute._

"And now I really have to go," said Sougo, straightening up and adjusting his jacket. "I'll be back in the afternoon."

Reluctantly smiling through a half-hearted scowl, the older Kagura said, "arrest somebody for me, you good-for-nothing cop."

Souichirou giggled. "Bye bye Papi!"

Sougo gave one last final wave and left the room.

The older Kagura turned to her younger counterpart. “Are you done?” she spoke over Kagura’s gagging. “Because I am not cleaning that up.”

Half an hour later, the rest of the group (including Sadaharu) finally departed the Okita residence.

“Remember,” the older Kagura said to Souichirou, steadying him as he rode on Sadaharu’s back with thunderous excitement, “Mami has to go to work, so you will stay with Aunty Gura today, okay?”

“Aunty Gura?” Souichirou repeated questioningly.

“Yes, that’s right,” said his mother, gesturing to Kagura who was walking beside her. “Aunty Gura is Mami’s sister.”

Nobody would have had a hard time believing this — unlike the day before, the older Kagura was wearing her hair up in her usual twin buns, and identical to Kagura’s own hairstyle, its effect was obvious in that it left the already similar looking Kaguras appear even more indistinguishable.

Kagura, thinking of this, grinned widely. Spinning her parasol lightly on her shoulder, she declared to Souichirou, “you can call me Gura-sama.”

Souichirou giggled. “Aunty Gura!”

The older Kagura chuckled. “Close enough.”

Eventually, the group came to a stop at the entrance to a ramen shop. “Here we go,” the older Kagura said, lifting Souichirou off Sadaharu’s back. 

Kagura frowned. “Are we going to eat?”

The older Kagura shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong with a second breakfast, yes?” she grinned, and with Souichirou balanced on one hip, she slid open the front door. “Wait here, Sadaharu,” the older woman said to the Inugami while Kagura shimmied past her into the building. 

From what she could see, the ramen shop was a perfectly ordinary one; the smells and sounds were of those one would expect to find in such a place, and the customers (ranging from old women to small families) were also of the usual standard, sitting either at the tables lined up against the wall or behind the counter, watching the cook prepare ramen diligently on the other side.

There was but one distinct element out of place in the otherwise average shop — the waiter, a man in his late thirties, was wearing a decidedly garish purple and black server uniform that not only clashed with his long, dark hair but most certainly did not match the Japanese store at all. 

He also happened to be someone Kagura knew. 

“Zura?” she said disbelievingly.

The waiter, currently in the middle of wiping down a table, did not look up. “It’s not Zura, it’s Katsura."

This correction went entirely ignored by the older Kagura, who after finally managing to convince Sadaharu to stay outside, breezed into the shop with great air of superiority. “Oi Zura,” she said, flicking the man’s forehead. “I need a favour.”

Rubbing the offended skin, Katsura finally stood up. “Oh, it’s you, Leader,” he said cheerfully. Bending his head to meet Souichirou at eye level, he continued, “and mini Leader. How are you today?”

“Zura!” Souichirou answered with a shout.

Katsura gently tugged the toddler’s cheek in reply. Straightening up, he said sagely to the boy's mother, “your husband shot me with a bazooka yesterday.”

The older Kagura sat herself down at the four-seater table Katsura had just finished wiping, looking supremely unconcerned. “What else is new?” 

Kagura, who for the most part had been standing in silence behind the older woman, was suddenly revealed upon her future self taking a seat, her arms crossed and eyes narrowed with disapproval. “What are you wearing?” she said to Katsura in disgust.

He blinked. “There are… two Leaders.”

“Oh, yes,” said the older Kagura, settling Souichirou in the seat beside her. “That _is_ new. Sit down, Zura,” she said, waving a hand towards the seat opposite her. “It’s a long story, yes.”

“It’s not Zura, it’s Katsura,” the man replied numbly, allowing himself to be pushed into the chair by an impatient Kagura. 

“It’s actually very simple,” she said, pretending Katsura had not said anything at all. “I’m from ten years ago in the past, and I don’t know how I got here. I want to go home—“

“But we don’t know how to send her back,” finished the older Kagura. “So, we need your help.”

“This place is crazy by the way,” Kagura added, seating herself in the remaining chair beside Katsura. “Everything is messed up, yes.”

Katsura raised his eyebrows. “I… see,” he said slowly, “I understand now.” Then, “I’m being filmed by a reality tv show!”

Both Kaguras smacked him over the head.

At that moment, a young girl of about six skipped out from behind the counter separating the customer side of the shop from the kitchen. Like Katsura, she was similarly dressed in a ridiculous, western uniform, though on her small body, the clothes were far too baggy and loose. Despite this, she approached their table looking extremely chipper, her long, black ponytail swishing cheerfully behind her. “Good morning!” she grinned toothily, whipping out a notepad. “What do you want to eat today?”

Souichirou (who up until that moment had been emptying salt granules from a shaker onto the table) looked up in excitement, his blue eyes positively shining. “Asahi!” he yelled, standing up in his seat. “Asahi, Asahi!”

“Not now, Souichi,” the girl whispered conspiratorially out the side of her mouth, “I’m working!” But in getting a better look at her customers, all remaining professional pretence was dropped. "Um, Kagura-san, there’s two of you today.”

“We’re sisters,” Kagura spoke up. “And your uniform is weird.”

“Thanks!" the girl beamed. "It’s what makes our shop special!”

“No, I mean it, it’s really weird, yes.”

“Asahi, play with me!”

“Souichi,” the older Kagura reprimanded, “Asahi-chan is working right now.”

Katsura hummed. “Where did you install the hidden cameras?” he asked, craning his head to look around the shop. “I don’t see any.”

“Zura, you idiot, this is real,” said Kagura, her eye twitching dangerously. “I’m really from the past. And your uniform doesn’t match the shop, yes. Put on something else, like a Pikachu costume.”

“It’s not Pikachu, it’s Katsura.”

“Asahi, I wanna play kick-the-can!"

The girl curiously cocked her head. “What’s a Pikachu?”

“More importantly,” a new voice suddenly cut in, “how does a Pikachu costume better match the shop?”

Kagura looked up, her mouth falling open in surprise.

“Ah, Mother,” said the six-year-old waitress sheepishly. “You already took the order?”

“Not at all,” smiled Ikumatsu, looking as elegantly beautiful as ever. Carefully, she set down on the table a large bowl of steaming ramen from the tray in her hands. “I just happen to know what Kagura-chan likes.”

“You’re the best, Matsu-nee,” grinned the older Kagura, picking up a pair of chopsticks. Souichirou peered into the bowl and gasped in delight. “Yummy!” he shouted and began eagerly tugging at his mother’s dress, excited enough to momentarily forget the waitress’s presence.

“Matsu-nee,” Kagura said once she had regained control over her jaw, “you have a daughter?”

Said daughter bowed politely. “My name is Asahi,” she smiled brightly, straightening up. “It’s very nice to meet you, Kagura-san's sister!”

At Kagura’s dubious expression, Ikumatsu’s smile widened into a mischievous grin. “A lot can happen in ten years,” she remarked, knowingly tapping the side of her nose. “I heard what you said. Kotarou,” she looked to Katsura, “you should help them out. I’m sure what they’re saying is the truth.”

Katsura sighed. “Yes,” he agreed, giving up on looking for hidden cameras, “I’m beginning to think so as well.”

“Can I help them too?” Asahi asked excitedly. 

“I don’t see why not,” said Ikumatsu. “It’s better than hiding out behind the kitchen counter reading _Jump._ ”

Asahi giggled unapologetically into her hands.

“Ikumatsu-san,” a customer beckoned, “over here!”

Ikumatsu turned her head. “Yes, I’ll be right over!” she called. To the group, she winked and said, “stay out of trouble!” before quickly departing.

“I should be going as well,” said the older Kagura, blowing on a piece of pork and feeding it to Souichirou. “I’m late enough as it is. Zura, you’ll take care of Souichi, yes? And help out past me?”

“It’s not Zura, it’s Katsura,” the man automatically corrected. “And it is irresponsible to dump your problems on other people, Leader.”

“Oi!” said Kagura, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I wanna play with Asahi,” said Souichirou, chewing through his slice of pork. Asahi tugged at Katsura’s sleeve. “I want to play as well,” she pouted, and then added with a hopeful smile, “and Mother says we should help out, right?” 

The older Kagura smirked, raising her hands in conciliatory defeat. “You heard them,” she said, pushing back her chair. “It’s out of my control.” She went on to say to her son, “be good today, Souichi. Mami will see you later, okay?”

“Okay!” said Souichirou, messily wiping his mouth. “I'm gonna play with Asahi!”

“That’s right,” the older Kagura confirmed, kissing the top of his head. Katsura heaved a loud sigh of disapproval, but made no further arguments in regards to his babysitting duties.

“Goodbye, Kagura-san!” Asahi waved as Souichirou said, “bye bye, Mami!”

“Tell Gin-chan and Shinpachi I said hi,” Kagura called, digging into the bowl of ramen.

The older Kagura gave the group a final thumbs up and left the shop.

“So, Zura,” began Kagura around a mouthful of noodles, “what do you know about time travel?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sougo's red arm guards and rolled up sleeves are honestly such a look™, but as much as I wanted him to be wearing his new uniform, I ended up going with the older design because I'm honestly too much of a sucker for cute domestic shit. Kagura tying Sougo's cravat every morning (despite him being perfectly capable of doing it himself) is fucking precious and nobody can take it away from me.
> 
> In other news, Ikumatsu has a daughter! I'm sure we all know where this is going ;)
> 
> Also, I'm sorry for the long wait; I recently started university and that shit has been _hectic._ I have two assignments coming up so the next chapter might not be posted for a while, but I'll do my best!
> 
> Thank you guys for your sweet comments on the last chapter (keep em coming, your lovely words are what keep me going!) and I hope you enjoyed the latest!


	7. Lesson 7: A Name Can Have A Lot Of Meaning

“And that’s pretty much it,” declared Kagura through half-eaten chunks of ramen, finishing her recount of yesterday’s events with a dramatic burp.

In the seat previously occupied by Kagura's older self, Asahi was positively shining. “Amazing!” she breathed, clasping her hands together. “It sounds just like a Gintaman arc!”

Kagura rolled her eyes. “Matsu-nee is right,” she sighed, relaxing into her chair and patting her bloated stomach with satisfaction, “you read too much _Jump_ , yes.”

Katsura, who for the entirety of Kagura’s story had been mostly silent, exhaled in a sorrowful manner. “It’s my fault,” he said regretfully. “I never should have let Gintoki buy her that first issue.”

“Don’t be mean,” Asahi pouted from across the table. “ _Jump_ is amazing!”

Souichirou seemed to think so well if his eager overturning of the magazine Asahi had fetched for him was any indication (although Kagura had the sneaking suspicion he more enjoyed the act of flipping pages than the images of shounen heroes beating villains to a pulp). So absorbed was he in his activity that Kagura assumed the toddler must have forgotten he was not alone.

Katsura sighed, but nonetheless, he let the issue drop. "It's an interesting thing to unexpectedly find yourself in the wrong time," he said to Kagura, stroking his chin in contemplation, "but as I said before, I know next to nothing about time travel other than the fact that it _should_ be impossible. If you want real help, you'll need to see a specialist."

Kagura gave a tut of disappointment. "You're no more help than Gin-chan, Zura," she complained. "At this rate, I'll never get home."

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura," the older man said automatically before curiously tilting his head. “And speaking of Gintoki, what did he have to say of all this?”

“All that stupid perm-head said was to go to the library, yup.”

Katsura hummed, casting a glance to the table in thought. “The library is actually a good idea. They might have books regarding time travel there, and the larger institutions photocopy old newspaper publishings and print them as books to store in their archives. They date back almost two decades — you could find some useful information.”

“That’s also what Gin-chan said,” Kagura whined, “but I don’t know where to start, or even which library to go to.”

Asahi perked up in her seat. “There’s a big one close to the terminal! They have _everything_ , even a _Jump_ section where they keep old issues!”

Katsura brightened, pulling Asahi into a tight hug. “As expected of my Asa-chan!” he cooed, seemingly unaware of how he had to practically lie across the table to enthusiastically rub his cheek into the side of Asahi's face. “You might be a _Jump_ addict, but you’re the smartest _Jump_ addict there is!”

“Agh!” Asahi shouted, struggling in Katsura’s arms. “I can’t breathe!”

Kagura felt her eyebrows raise in confusion. “ _Your_ Asa-chan?”

Katsura, however, did not get a chance to clarify, for at that moment, the door to the ramen shop suddenly slid open with a bang. Through the entrance, a large costumed duck frantically rushed in. 

“Eli!” exclaimed Kagura and Asahi.

“Elizabeth!” said Katsura in surprise, letting go of Asahi. “What’s the matter?”

Elizabeth, skidding to a halt by the table, whipped out a placard reading, _‘it’s bad, Katsura-san!’_ Written underneath in a smaller, more controlled font, was an additional, _'hello Asa-chan, Kagura-chan.'_

Katsura reached over Kagura's head to shake the duck by the arms. “Focus Elizabeth!" he shouted. "What’s bad?!”

Elizabeth flipped the placard. _‘I wasn’t able to buy your spring onions.’_

Katsura stopped. “Oh,” he blinked, caught off guard. “Is that all? We just can go to Great Edo Mart tonight—“

 _‘Also,’_ read the new placard Elizabeth held up, _‘the Shinsengumi followed me here.’_

As if on cue, the sound of police sirens began to distantly wail in the distance. “Damn!” cried Katsura, slamming a hand on the table. “Curse those fiends!” As an afterthought, he added apologetically to Kagura and Souichirou, “no offence.”

Souichirou, too embroiled with his flipping of Jump pages to notice, did not say anything (though if the toddler had been listening, Kagura doubted he would have understood), and Kagura, pretending to lose interest at ‘Shinsengumi,’ merely shrugged. “Why should I care?” she said, picking her nose.

Katsura opened his mouth, but shook his head, thinking better of it. Instead, he looked determinedly to Asahi. “Asa-chan, I need the sake from the fridge.”

Asahi’s carefree demeanour immediately soured. “That’s no good, Father,” she frowned, wagging an authoritative finger. “You know Mother says you’re still not allowed.”

Kagura accidentally jammed her pinkie a little too far up her nostril. “Oi, oi,” she said, laughing uncomfortably through a nosebleed, “for a second there I thought you called him ‘father.’”

Asahi cocked her head. “I did.”

Kagura accidentally slipped off her chair with a shriek.

Katsura, glancing anxiously out the window, ignored this and said, “Mother isn't here right now, and I promise I won’t drink any of it!”

Asahi narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but after a few seconds, grudgingly gave in. “Okay,” she conceded, running to the back stairs leading from the shop to the apartment above. “But when she comes back from her delivery, you’ll be in big trouble!”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Katsura answered distractedly, still peering through the blinds.

Kagura, clumsily climbing to her feet, grabbed Katsura by his vest. “Zura, what the hell?!" she screeched. "Asahi-chan is your kid? _You’re_ the father of Matsu-nee’s daughter?!”

“It’s not father, it’s Katsura.”

Elizabeth held up a new placard. _‘You couldn’t tell?’_ it read. _‘They have the same hair.’_

“Eli!” said Kagura, aghast. “ _Everybody_ has black hair!”

“You don’t,” Katsura said pointedly.

“SHUT UP!” yelled Kagura, turning back to the man to violently shake him back and forth. “NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR A FATHER’S DUMB OPINION!”

At that moment, Asahi came flying back down the stairs, a large glass bottle of sake in her small hands. “I’ve got it!” she shouted triumphantly, pushing the bottle into Katsura’s hands. “What are you gonna do with it, Father?”

“Stop calling him that!” Kagura wailed. “It’s creeping me out, yes!”

Katsura, taking the bottle, ruffled Asahi’s hair in thanks. “You’ll see,” he winked, popping the cork sealing the top of the bottle and stuffing the washcloth from his belt into the opening. “If only I hadn’t wasted all of my bombs, yesterday,” he muttered, now fishing for something in his pockets. “I wouldn’t have had to waste a perfectly good bottle of sake…” After a few seconds, he pulled out a lighter. "Aha!" he exclaimed, dramatically raising it to the air. “I’ve got it!”

Elizabeth, standing by the open door, produced another placard. _‘Hurry, Katsura-san. They’re almost here.’_

“Yes, I’m coming,” Katsura said and turned to face Asahi. Holding her by the shoulders and bending down to meet her at eye level, he said, “Asa-chan, I need you to take care of the store for us. I’ll return soon, but if Mother comes home before I do, then you will have to take Kagura-san and Souichirou-kun to the library without me. Can you do all that?”

Asahi made a determined face and straightened her back. “I can do it,” she said, saluting him. “Leave it to me, Father!”

Katsura planted a loud kiss on her cheek. “That’s my girl!” he grinned and ran to meet Elizabeth by the door. “Goodbye Leader, mini Leader! Good luck!”

Kagura watched them dash out of the store with a floored expression. “The future is nuts,” she said, dazed.

Outside, Katsura lit up the washcloth hanging out of the sake bottle with his lighter. A little further down the street, Shinsengumi officers were charging up to meet them, weapons drawn and jackets flying behind them like banners.

“Oh! I see,” said Asahi, clapping her hands together. “That’s why Father wanted the sake!”

Kagura, watching with Asahi through the window, demanded, “what? What’s he doing?”

But Asahi did not have to answer, for Katsura — who up until that moment had been waiting for the Shinsengumi to draw closer — pulled back his hand and threw the glass bottle at their feet; the molotov cocktail exploded with a _bang,_ creating a wall of fire between the Shinsengumi and him and Elizabeth.

“Hahaha!” laughed Katsura obnoxiously, as he and Elizabeth faded into the smoke screen created by the explosion. “Goodbye, dumb police officers!”

By the time the smoke and fire were put out, the two had already disappeared.

“And they’re gone,” Kagura said, shaking her head. 

Souichirou, finally looking up from his magazine, blinked curiously. “Huh?”

When Ikumatsu came back from her delivery half an hour later, she found Asahi and Souichirou enthusiastically playing Jan Ken Pon at the counter while Kagura watched blandly from her table. The rest of the store was empty.

“Ah, Mother!” said Asahi, looking up. “You’re back!”

Kagura cheered up. “Finally!” she said in relief, moving to pick up Souichirou from the counter before Ikumatsu had even set down her transport box. “Matsu-nee, I’m borrowing Asahi-chan for a bit. I’ll bring her back later!”

“Eh?” Ikumatsu blinked. “Where are you guys going?”

“The library!” Asahi piped up, following Kagura out of the shop. “I’m going to lead the way!”

“Ah, wait a second!” Ikumatsu called after them. “Where did that father of yours get off to?”

“Father's playing with the police,” Asahi replied. “He says he’ll be back soon.”

Ikumatsu sighed, walking the group to the door. “He better be. It’s his turn to cook dinner tonight.” At the entrance, she waved them off. “Be safe! And good luck!”

They waved back and began heading off down the street. On the way to the library, Asahi danced happy circles around Kagura and Souichirou. “The library is this way, this way!” she sang, enthusiastically flapping her arms. “This library is this way, all the way to the Terminal!”

Souichirou clapped with glee, wriggling in Kagura’s arms as he tried to join in the song. “This way, this way,” he echoed, laughing in delight.

Eventually, Kagura began to feel dizzy. Struggling to balance both Souichirou and the parasol hanging from her arm, she snapped, “oi, cut it out! You’re starting to make me feel sick, yes!”

Asahi giggled into her palm but nonetheless slowed to walk alongside Kagura. “Sorry, Kagura-san,” she said lightly. “I’ll try and be calm.” To Souichirou, she whispered, “we’ll sing later.”

Souichirou sulked, clutching onto Kagura’s shoulder. "I wanna sing now," he whined petulantly.

Kagura rolled her eyes. “Let’s talk about something else,” she proposed, thinking up of a new topic. Her eyes lighting up, she said to Asahi, “y'know, I had no idea the shop was your Mami’s when I walked in. Forget just looking different — the neighbourhood it’s in doesn’t even look like the same one, yes.”

Asahi tapped her chin thoughtfully. “We did move a few years ago. The naughty policemen kept accidentally destroying the old shop, so Mother wanted to start up a new one.”

Eh?” said Kagura, thinking of Ikumatsu’s late husband. “She wanted to move?”

“Yup. Mother and Father had a huge fight over it. Father said he didn’t want Mother to leave the old shop because it had too many memories,” said Asahi, pausing before breaking into a smile. “But Mother said she didn’t care. She said that the old shop was just a building and that we would make new memories because home was wherever we were.”

Kagura smiled to herself. “That’s really nice.”

Asahi beamed. “Isn’t it?”

Watching her skip ahead, Kagura could only grin. _Zura,_ she thought, _you managed to find yourself a really nice family._

Maybe the future wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

“Ah!” exclaimed Asahi suddenly, pointing to a large square building ahead of them. “There it is!” True to her word, the library was indeed close to the terminal. At the sight of it Kagura felt renewed with hope.

Pursing her lips in determination, she set Souichirou down on the ground. “C’mon, Souichirou,” she said, taking his tiny hand into her own. “Let’s find a way for me to get back home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter kind of got away from me and became a Katsumatsu centred update, but don't worry, this is still very much an Okikagu fic :)
> 
> Also, in case you were wondering, I did end up changing Asahi's speech - I was originally intending to use the romanji 'otosan' and 'okasan' whenever Asahi directly referred to her parents, but in the end, I wasn't very comfortable with it. If I'm being honest, 'father' and 'mother' isn't much better, but I very much headcanon Asahi as a polite girl who uses formal language when speaking with others (something she inherited from Zura), so on that front, I didn't really have much of a choice.
> 
> Anyway, it got a little cliche there at the end, but I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if I hadn’t put in a little backstory for the Katsumatsu family. The thing is, I struggled a lot over what to do with Zura and Ikumatsu’s relationship — as much as I wanted them to be married and have a kid, there were so many other factors to consider, mainly:
> 
> 1\. Ikumatsu’s late husband - Ikumatsu obviously has feelings for Zura, but she obviously still loves her husband, and that kind of love doesn’t just go away.
> 
> 2\. Zura’s respect - he might have a thing for married/widowed women, but Zura’s too much of a gentleman to just move in on another man’s wife. From the Ikumatsu arc, it’s obvious that he greatly respects Daigo, and as much as he loves her, he would do his best to not try anything out of that respect.
> 
> 3\. Zura’s Jouishishi ties - Daigo was killed by Jouishishi, and try as she might, I don’t think that’s something Ikumatsu can just easily forget.
> 
> But then I thought, fuck it, it’s my story and I can do whatever I want. So with that in mind, this is what I think (hope) will happen in the future: following Zura’s development into an anti-violence Jouishishi organisation, he and Ikumatsu eventually get together. I’m going to leave their marital status ambiguous since I don’t know whether they would ever tie the knot, but regardless, they have Asahi, who despite being very much an accident, they love with all their heart. I won't delve too deep into it, but I feel like one day, Ikumatsu would want to move. Her current shop is more her and Daigo's than it is her, Zura’s and Asahi’s — Zura would definitely protest, because again, out of respect for Daigo, I know he wouldn’t want her to feel as if she needs to give it up to feel comfortable with her new family. But Ikumatsu knows that her home isn’t the shop, it’s her daughter and this stupid man with his ridiculously long hair. And in the end, it’s just a building.
> 
> So they move, set up a new ramen shop and keep the name Hokuto Shinken in memory of Daigo, and begin anew. And Asahi, who I was so close to naming Liz (after Elizabeth lmao), is a symbol of this through her name — morning sun, or sunrise. Like a new day, Ikumatsu moves on with Zura and begins a new life, hence the secret meaning behind this chapter's title.
> 
> And wow, this became a ridiculously long rant. If you actually sat and read this whole thing, kudos to you. If you guys are interested in me really unpacking this relationship by writing a Katsumatsu story about this, then let me know!
> 
> I also want to say that though I've finished my assignments, I now have new ones to worry about D: The next update might not be for a while so be prepared. But while you wait, why don't you guys let me know what headcanons you have for this future? Do you think Kontae would be a thing? What about Gintoki? Do you think he would be in a relationship? I love hearing your thoughts and I love love _love_ ranting about Gintama to you guys, it's my favourite part of the day and it definitely sustains my inspiration. 
> 
> Again, please don't hesitate to share your thinking. Until next time!
> 
> \- Arasei


	8. Lesson 8: Libraries Can Be Useful, But Only When You Know Where To Look

“Nothing,” moaned Kagura, dropping her head against the edge of a table. “I have _nothing._ ”

Scattered around her were several thick volumes opened on random pages, all displaying scanned copies of past publications released by Edo’s main newspaper. So far, all of the articles had been massively unhelpful — most of them had downright wasted several pages on Edo’s latest firework events, Prince Hata’s escapee pets, and weekly idol fads. Somewhere along the way, Kagura had even gotten distracted from her initial search by reading about various terrorist attacks committed by the Jouishishi. To amuse herself, she’d made a game of spotting Zura’s name as many times as possible and ordering those mentions by level of interest (currently in top place was an entire article dedicated to his graffitiing of the Terminal by spray-painting a ‘monstrous looking duck holding up a sign tagged “Joui is Joy”). Many times, she had attempted to call Asahi over and read them with her, but since their arrival, the girl had been too busy playing tag with Souichirou throughout the library to notice. The two children had received many dirty looks from other library goers, but so far, nobody had had the heart to tell them off.

Lifting her head, Kagura glared at the Katsura related articles. While certainly fun, her game had not at all lent a solution to her time travelling crisis. In an effort to get back on track, Kagura tugged one of the books towards her and read aloud, “Kabukicho Wins A Golden Raspberry." She groaned and let her head fall onto the page. “It’s useless,” she whined. “I’m never gonna be able to get back.”

“Now, now,” said a gentle, placating voice, “it’s not like you to just give up, Kagura-chan.”

Startled, Kagura looked up to see Shimura Tae standing by her chair, wearing a pale blue kimono and looking as lovely as Kagura had seen her last. The woman smiled, tilting her head. “It’s good to see you, Kagura-chan.”

Kagura almost knocked her over with the force of her hug. “Anego!” she wailed. “I need your help!”

Otae patted her head comfortingly. “Don’t you worry,” she soothed. “We’ll get you back home.” Pulling away, she said, “now, let me get a look at you.”

At arms distance, Kagura could see more clearly than before that time had been extremely kind to Otae, maturing the angles and curves of her face in a way that only seemed to accentuate her natural beauty. She had not, however, developed anything further in the chest department, something which Kagura felt she should keep to herself, lest she lose the ability to breathe. Otae was fortunately not privy to this particular train of thought. Inspecting Kagura’s features, she chuckled and said, “my, you really do look like fifteen-year-old Kagura-chan.”

Kagura blinked, only just realising how easily Otae had accepted her ‘younger’ appearance. “Anego, do you already know about the time travelling stuff?”

“Oh, yes!” said Otae, clapping her hands together. She began rummaging around in her purse and continued, “Kagura-chan — er, _present_ Kagura-chan, told Shin-chan and I everything when I went to bring the Yorozuya my homemade tamago yaki. I didn’t really believe it, and when others said they weren’t very hungry…” from her bag, Otae produced a bright pink bento box, “Kagura-chan suggested that I see you for myself and bring you lunch!”

Kagura silently cursed her older self. Despite ten years passing, she highly doubted Otae’s cooking had improved. “Y’know, Anego,” she began nervously, “I just came from a ramen shop, so I’m not that hungry either, yes.”

Otae made a noise of remembrance. “Ah, that's right! from Hokuto Shinken. I went there first when I was looking for you, and Ikumatsu-san had to point me in the right direction." She sighed, looking down at her pink, plastic box of doom. “How could I have forgotten?”

“Yes,” agreed Kagura in relief. “So I obviously can’t eat—“

Otae suddenly brightened. “But Sou-chan is here! And Asahi-chan as well! I’m sure they’ll be hungry, they’re growing children afterall.”

Kagura felt her face blanch from horror. Her older self would _kill her_ if she let her own child be poisoned by Otae. “Um, Anego—“

“Sou-chan! Asahi-chan!” Otae called, waving to them. “Over here!”

Both children halted in their game. “Anego!” Souichirou shouted, his face lighting up. Immediately switching directions, he ran to Otae with thunderous excitement, earning more dirty looks from other library goers. Asahi followed at a more respectable pace, giggling when Souichirou jumped into the woman’s arms.

“Ah!” Otae exclaimed, accidentally dropping her bento box in order to catch Souichirou. “Sou-chan! Look what you’ve done!”

Souichirou stared at the dark matter that had spilled from the box. “Poop,” he said without meaning. He looked back to Otae, clutching tightly onto her kimono and trying his best to appear apologetic. “Sorry, Anego,” he mumbled, trembling his bottom lip and widening his eyes to the point of unshed tears. From Otae’s wavering frown, Kagura knew that it was effective. The older woman finally caved.

“Oh, you know I can’t stay mad at you,” said Otae, smiling, setting Souichirou on the ground as she did so. The toddler immediately cheered. With a big grin, he announced, “I wanna read book!” and wandered away. Asahi, who had been staring at Otae’s ‘lunch’ and watching in fascinated horror as it evaporated into the floor, snapped out of her daze. “Wait, Souichi! I’ll go with you!” she said hurriedly, and with one final glance at the dark matter, Asahi began swiftly steering Souichirou towards the _Jump_ section of the library.

Kagura sat down feeling impressed and more than a little proud. _Smart kids._

Otae bent down to pick up her now empty bento box and took the chair next to her. “So,” she said to Kagura with renewed cheerfulness. “What have you been doing up until now?”

Kagura gestured to the books scattered across the table. “Gin-chan and Zura told me to look for newspapers that say anything about time travelling or weird shaking,” she said, lifting the book nearest to her between two fingers with disgust. “But all they say is stuff about celebrities and terrorist attacks, yes.”

“That is tricky,” Otae hummed, examining the newspaper articles. “Which ones have you looked at so far?”

Kagura dragged some of the books toward them, flipping between pages and pointing out some the scanned publishings. Otae paused, glancing between the articles. “Kagura-chan,” she said slowly, “all of these papers are either from this year or from ten years ago.”

Picking her nose, Kagura shrugged. “I was too lazy to look at the ones in between.”

Before Otae could do anything overly drastic (like beat Kagura over the head with one of the books), Souichirou and Asahi came back to the table, each staggering under a stack of Jump magazines.

“Mami, look!” said Souichirou, doing his best to lift the magazines to the table.

Kagura coughed, her face turning slightly pink. “Souichirou, it’s Aunty Gura remember?”

Souichirou blinked curiously at her from behind his dangerously unbalanced tower. “Hm?”

“Nevermind,” Kagura grumbled, looking away in an attempt to settle the warm feeling settling in her chest.

Otae smiled into her hand, seemingly being able to read Kagura’s hesitant fondness for the toddler. Apparently deeming her turbulent feelings enough of a punishment, Otae refrained from physical retribution, instead pulling another book towards to her to read.

“Come on, Kagura-chan,” she said determinedly. “Let’s get started.”

Hours later, however, they still had not managed to find so much as a sentence related to time travel.

Otae sighed, a hand on her cheek. “There really is nothing,” she said, staring at the book in front of her. “At least nothing from last year.”

Kagura, who's head was currently tucked helplessly into her arms, moaned, “I told you it was hopeless, yup.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve just been moping around all day,” a new voice said mockingly.

Kagura’s head snapped up from the table. “Sadist?” she said disbelievingly.

“Ah, Okita-kun,” said Otae cheerfully. “Is your shift over?”

Sougo, still in uniform, merely shrugged in his usual expressionless manner. "I got bored.”

“Corrupt police-officer,” sneered Kagura, recovering. “How did you even know we were here?”

Sougo pulled out from his pocket a slightly bent paper crane about the size of his hand, tossing it to Kagura who deftly caught it. On the pink paper of the crane’s wings were words written in a hasty scrawl.

 _Leader and Mini-Leader are at the library near the terminal._  
_Also, plz make sure Asahi gets home safe. Thx._

_\- Katsura_

Kagura blinked. “Eh?”

“It was left on my desk at the Shinsengumi,” supplied Sougo.

Otae chuckled into her hand. “It seems Katsura-san is incapable of doing anything without flair.”

At that moment, a small voice spoke up. “Papi?” yawned Souichirou, waking up in the beanbag Asahi had pulled over from the kids section of the library. About halfway through Kagura and Otae’s research session, the two children had fallen asleep aside each other whilst reading, or in Souichirou’s case, looking excitedly at pictures.

Sougo moved to the beanbag and gently lifted his son up into his arms. “You sleepy?” he said, bouncing the toddler slightly. Souichirou nodded, rubbing his eyes.

“We can go home now if you want,” Sougo said comfortingly. To the six-year-old blinking awake in the beanbag, he said, “what about you, kid? You want us to drop you off?”

“I can take her,” Otae offered. “Hokuto Shinken is on my way home.”

Asahi paused, squinting warily. “You don't happen to have any more food do you, Otae-san?”

Otae looked sadly to her empty bento box. “Unfortunately, no.”

Asahi cheered up. “Okay,” she agreed. Coming to her feet, she bowed clumsily to Sougo. “Thank you for letting Souichi play with me today, Mister Officer.”

Sougo affectionately poked her forehead. “Tell your dad I’m coming for him,” he said in reply. Adjusting Souichirou in his arms, he began to walk away. “C’mon, young China. Let’s go home.”

“Tch,” said Kagura, picking up her parasol and following after him. “That damn sadist, thinking he can just tell me what to do.”

“Goodbye, Kagura-chan!” Otae called from the table as Asahi waved. “Good luck!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kagura yelled back, but Sougo interrupted. “Hurry up, young China,” he said, holding the front door of the library open with one arm and a sleeping Souichirou in his other. “Before I slam this door in your face.”

Kagura chose not to mention how the sadist in her time would have probably already tried to do so.

It dawned on her then that she held back a lot of things from future Sougo. Though she had only been acquainted with him for a day, there had been many a time where she had had to force herself from making suspicious allegations as to the truth behind his relationship with her future self. As they walked to the train station by the library, Kagura realised that this would be their first time speaking without another adult chaperoning them. It did not help that the sight of Sougo holding Souichirou so affectionally unnerved her to her very core. Biting out her usual remarks and insults seemed to be a rather petty course of action to take when her victim was very much clearly a doting father.

“So, Asahi-chan,” Kagura prompted, for lack of anything better to say. “You know she’s Zura’s daughter?”

“It’d be weird if I didn’t,” replied Sougo.

Kagura scoffed. “I don’t get it,” she said, lifting her parasol onto her shoulder. “You say to stay away from Zura because he’s a terrorist, and then you let your son hang out with him and his daughter. Then the Shinsengumi comes after him, and you offer to take his kid home. That doesn’t make any sense, yes?”

“He spray painted dicks on our desk yesterday,” Sougo deadpanned. “Of course we’re going to come after him.”

“That’s not the point—“

“No,” said Sougo. “That is the point. He's an idiot, but unlike a certain group of freelancers that I know, policemen have a duty to the citizens of Edo. Morons will always be morons, but if their daughters need an escort home, we'll see that it happens.”

They reached the train station. As they walked past the ticket gate, Kagura gave a petulant scowl. “I still don’t get it.”

Sougo tapped her head. “You’re just stupid, young China.”

Kagura swatted his hand away. “Shut up! And stop calling me that!”

Sougo raised an eyebrow. “Young China?”

“Yes! _That!_ ” yelled Kagura. In Sougo’s arms, Souichirou yawned and shifted, but did not wake. In a much quieter voice, Kagura hissed, “it pisses me off!”

Sougo sighed. “Man, younger you is a handful.”

Unable to bite her tongue any longer, Kagura finally snapped, “so why did you marry me in the first place?”

Sougo stilled, a mocking smile lifting his mouth. “So she finally starts asking the real questions,” he smirked, and then without further preamble, continued in an easy voice, “because I wanted to.”

Kagura fell into a surprised silence. She did not have a reply for that.

Soon their train pulled into the station, and Sougo boarded. Shaking herself out of her stupor, Kagura quickly followed. “But you’re a sadist!” she exclaimed, as the train doors closed behind her. “You don’t know the first thing about caring for anybody!”

Sougo sat down on one of the train seats and sighed. “Just how little do you think of me?” He turned to look at Kagura with uncharacteristic seriousness. “Is that what you really believe?”

Kagura paused, her face turning slightly red.

Souichirou, waking up from the rocking of the train, stretched in Sougo’s arms. “Where are we, Papi?” he mumbled sluggishly. “I wanna go home.”

“We’re on our way,” said Sougo, pointing to the window behind them. “Look.”

Souichirou perked up considerably. “We’re on the train!” he cried, all traces of sleep disappearing in an instant. Moving to stand on his father’s lap, he held onto Sougo’s shoulder excitedly and watched from the window with awe as Edo’s scenery blurred past.

In seeing Sougo steady his son with gentle hands (hands she had only ever seen holding a bloodstained sword), Kagura knew that she had been lying. It had not been fair to say that Sougo was incapable of caring when she had seen firsthand just how much he could, seen him keep a father’s dirty secret for the mere sake of a little girl’s memory, and watched as he prepared to give his life for that little girl’s own. Even now, she could still feel the cold metal of yesterday's katana at her neck, and infused into the blade, murderous intent and anger and the thought of her harming his wife.

_Some things in this world must be protected, even if it means getting your hands dirty._

Okita Sougo cared, and she knew it.

With a resigned scowl, she took the empty seat beside him. In answer to his raised eyebrow, she muttered, “whatever.”

Sougo shook his head. “I pity past me,” he said, but there was a barely imperceptible smile on his face. “He still has to put up with you in your tsundere stage.”

Kagura made to stomp on his foot but missed. “I’m not a tsundere! And lucky for him, he might not have to! I didn’t find anything helpful today, yes.”

“Pa- _pi_ ,” Souichirou whined, losing his footing on Sougo’s lap as the older man attempted to dodge Kagura’s numerous attempts to crush his toes. “Stop moving!’

“Papi can’t help it,” said Sougo, pointedly glancing at Kagura who in turn childishly stuck out her tongue. “He needs to keep moving so the monster next to him doesn’t break his toes.”

Souichirou looked around curiously. “Monster? Where?”

Sougo lifted Souichirou into Kagura’s lap. “Right here.”

“Who are you calling a monster, you brat!” Kagura scowled, but did not get to try again at his feet due to Souichirou's sudden clambering to stand on her legs. “Don’t move, Mami,” he ordered, clutching her shoulders and looking past her head to the window behind their seat.

“I already told you, it’s not Mami, it’s Aunty Gura, yes!” griped Kagura, but Souichirou was already too enamoured with the view again to notice.

Sougo chuckled and slipped on his red eye mask (worn out from ten years of use), leaning back in his seat as if about to take a nap. Crossing his arms, he said, “we’ll find a way for you to get back.” In response to Kagura’s stunned silence, he added, “I struggle enough with one China as it is. I refuse to be saddled with two for the rest of my life.”

Kagura scoffed. “You are lucky to have two of us in your presence, yes,” she retorted, but could not help the smile lifting her lips.

“Mami look, a doggy!” Souichirou pointed out the window excitedly.

Kagura didn’t bother to try and correct him. Encircling her arms around the toddler’s waist, she angled herself to look out the window behind her. They stayed that way for the rest of the ride, her holding on to Souichirou as they both pointed out bits of scenery, Sougo napping beside them. 

In the warm, afternoon light, she thought of how she was neither a mother nor a wife, and this wasn’t her family, wasn’t _her_ reality, but in the lull of Souichirou’s comforting chatter, Sougo’s soft snores, and the train rocking underneath their feet—

it felt real anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I am so sorry, I accidentally posted this chapter before editing, so if you received a notification saying I posted and then couldn't find it, I am so, so sorry. Also if you managed to read it before I took it down (lucky you I guess haha!) then please do me a favour and read it again, because I made so many spelling errors beforehand, you have no idea.
> 
> Again, I am so sorry, for the accidental posting of the chapter and also for the long wait! I handed in my assignments yesterday and now I have a little time to write the next chapter! Hopefully, it will be posted soon :/
> 
> Thanks for your support and for continuously reading each new update. This work has become somewhat of a labour of love for me and I'm glad you guys are enjoying it.
> 
> Until next time!


	9. Lesson 9: People Change, But Idiots Will Always Be Idiots

If yesterday’s trip to the library had been rowdy, the next day was downright chaotic.

Having no immediate Yorozuya obligations to fill, the older Kagura had decided to accompany her younger self in the search for time travel related information, and making good on his word from the other day, Sougo had also taken the day off to help. While this was advantageous for many reasons (one could never have too many slaves) confining two extremely strong personalities in one room — not including herself — with nothing to do but read, made for a noise level far above the usual library standard. Sougo could have very well arrested both himself and his wife for disturbing the peace, for when they weren’t arguing with each other from across the table, they were arguing with each other in the same seat, burning into Kagura’s memory the extremely disturbing image of her older self looking quite at home sitting on Sougo’s lap. 

Souichirou was similarly of no assistance to Kagura’s cause. At the unhelpful age of three, he was incapable of focusing his attention on a single subject for longer than ten seconds, let alone read; so far, his only contribution had been in pointing out funny pictures from the newspaper articles spread out on the table, one particularly notable image being Prince Hata with his head stuck in a hippo’s mouth.

Logically, this would have left Kagura as the remaining sane member of the group, though this was problematic for many reasons, one being she had never been very good at being either sensible or practical. This meant that if something more compelling than an article about kimono trends caught her interest, she would instantly be swept into it. At one point, Sougo and the older Kagura had begun an intense arm wrestling match mediated by Kagura herself. She and Souichirou had practically been competing in terms of who could cheer the loudest, Souichirou on behalf of Sougo, and Kagura for her older self. The match had eventually cumulated in a draw, casualties including a broken table and a distinct absence in library goer numbers (most had been quick to abscond after the first crack in the table). An attendant had marched over to tell them off and presumably force them to pay for damages, but the older Kagura had glared at him with the force of a thousand suns and Sougo had menacingly pulled out his katana, and terrified, the attendant left them alone without even having said so much as a word.

The result of all this was that after three hours, the group was no closer to figuring out the secret behind Kagura’s time travelling dilemma.

“I’m tired,” Sougo sighed, pushing away a book. “Let’s take a break.”

“Break!” echoed Souichirou, pointing to their first table which lay in pieces beside the new one they had relocated to. From across the library, the attendant’s eye twitched.

The older Kagura yawned and curled her arms around her son, slumping over him as if to use his small back as a pillow. “A break,” she repeated, smiling into Souichirou’s soft hair. “That sounds nice, yes.”

“Ma- _mi_ , that tickles!” Souichirou whined, wriggling in the older Kagura’s embrace. His mother responded by peppering kisses on his cheek. “But you’re so comfy,” she cooed in between each kiss, eliciting loud squeals of laughter from Souichirou.

Kagura looked away, willing herself to quash the strange feeling rising in her chest. “We can’t take a break,” she said, though any urgency in her words was negated by the yawn that immediately followed. “We have so much stuff to do, yes.”

“Tomorrow, young China,” muttered Sougo, his red sleeping mask already tugged over his eyes. “There's always tomorrow.”

This resolution lasted all of two seconds before they were snapped out of their stupor by Souichirou who suddenly shrieked, causing Kagura to accidentally snap a chunk off the edge of the table, her older self to fall backward off her chair, and Sougo to reflexively pull out his katana in alarm, his eye mask still half on.

Souichirou, frantically waving to some unseen person, went innocently oblivious. “GIN!” he shouted, excitement colouring his voice. “GIN, GIN!”

Having seemingly materialised from nowhere, Gintoki stood behind Sougo on the other side of the table, an arm hidden in his yukata sleeve and a finger stuck unabashedly up his nose. “Oi, oi,” he droned, “don’t tell me this is all you guys have been doing?”

“Gin-chan!” exclaimed Kagura in surprise.

“Danna,” sighed Sougo, sheathing his sword, “you have to give us warning before you appear like that out of the blue.”

“This is a library, Souichirou-kun—” 

“It’s Sougo, Danna.”

“—You’re supposed to be quiet when entering a l—oof!” Souichirou had jumped into Gintoki’s arms. “Gin!” the toddler beamed. “Play with me!”

“Oi. I’m suddenly holding a monkey.”

The older Kagura resurfaced from below the table looking both disheveled and harassed. Spitting hair out of her mouth, she said irritably, “what are you doing here, Gin-chan?”

“You said you weren’t going to help,” Kagura added accusingly.

Adjusting Souichirou in his arms, Gintoki retorted, "who do you think I am? Of course I'm not going to help. That’s why I rounded up a bunch of slaves to do it instead.”

“Who’re you calling a slave?!” an indignant voice suddenly yelled from the library entrance. 

"Oh?" Gintoki glanced back over his shoulder. “You heard me from all the way over there? You must have excellent hearing, Shinpachi.”

Kagura looked behind him and instantly brightened, for making their way over to the table was a familiar face. Though he was wearing a new haori and haircut, Kagura would have been able to recognise those round glasses anywhere. She ran to him in excitement. “Shinpachi!”

Shinpachi beamed. "Ah! Kagura-chan—"

Kagura grabbed the glasses off his face and eagerly embraced them. “I’ve missed you!”

There was a beat of silence. “Um,” said Shinpachi, his eyebrow twitching as he watched Kagura cuddle the silver spectacles, “you’re hugging the wrong thing.”

To the older Kagura, he said, “this girl is definitely you.”

“Oh, yes,” said the older Kagura to Shinpachi’s glasses. “We’re like sisters, yup.”

“Oi! The older one is really no different to the younger one! They’re really both the same person!”

“Now, now, Shin-chan, this is a library you know,” came Otae’s saccharine voice. “You’ll have to keep quiet or somebody will throw you out.”

Kagura looked up. “Anego!” she beamed, immediately discarding the glasses (“be careful with those!” Shinpachi shrieked) in favour of tackling the older woman in a hug. “You’re back again!”

Otae smiled cheerily. “Of course! And this time, we came with reinforcements.”

At that moment, a chaotic flood of familiar people began to squeeze into the library through the front entrance. To the utter horror of the library attendant across the room, a swarm of Hyakka women, Yagyuu retainers, ninjas, hosts, trannies, and homeless men came marching towards their table in a cacophony of noise and colours, and at the forefront of it all—

An old lady, a cat burglar, and a robot maid.

Otose blew smoke from her cigarette and smiled. “Don’t worry,” she said in response to Kagura’s awestruck expression. “We’ll just add it to the perm head’s tab.”

Gintoki made an offended noise. “Like hell you will, you old hag—“

“Already trying to skip out on the bill?” interrupted a new voice, its owner bringing with him the faint smell of nicotine. “We could arrest you for that, y’know.”

It was then that from the crowd emerged an army of Shinsengumi men.

“Gorilla! Mayora!” said Kagura in shock.

Looking older but no less kinder, Kondou Isao beamed his usual toothy grin. “It’s good to see you, young China girl.”

Gintoki scoffed over Souichirou’s happy shouts of delight. “Nobody invited you tax robbers here.”

“Who said we needed permission?” Hijikata retorted.

“Well, _who…_ ”

Sensing an altercation, the older Kagura quickly transferred Souichirou into her arms while the two men continued to argue. Predictably, a brawl soon began, prompting more than half of the surrounding crowd into forming a ring around them in order to eagerly watch and place bets.

Next to Kagura, Sougo rolled his eyes. “Kondou-san,” he said to his Commander, “I told you yesterday that we could handle this without the Shinsengumi.”

Kondou laughed uproariously, clapping a heavy hand on Sougo’s shoulder. “Ah, Sougo,” he grinned, “You never change. Don’t you see? You don’t have to take on the burden alone —you’ve got people who _want_ to help right here.” 

“He’s right,” put in Otose. “The help of others doesn’t mean you’re incapable of helping your family, brat. It just means there are more people in that family than you first thought.”

Kagura sniffed. “Old lady…”

Otae squeezed her shoulder kindly. “All of us here are family. And families support each other.”

Kondou began to tear up in earnest. “Otae-san!” he wailed, running to sweep her into a hug. “That was so beautiful! My gorilla wife is a such an amazing poet!”

Otae’s eyes flashed. Intercepting his arm, she yelled, “WHO ARE YOU CALLING YOUR GORILLA WIFE, YOU BASTARD!” and launched him across the room.

From the other side of the library, there was a loud _bang!_

“Aneue!” Shinpachi shrieked, frantically chasing after Otae as she marched over towards Kondou’s dazed form in order to forcibly evict him from the building.

Sougo sighed, pulling off his eye mask and tucking it into his pockets. “I guess there’s no time for a break,” he said, but there was a smile on his face. He rapped Kagura on the forehead. “Work hard, young China — this is all for you after all.”

He departed before Kagura could even reply.

In the hour that followed, no less than twenty-four fights had broken out, a wall had been completely destroyed, and the library’s only attendant had resigned. As she lay slumped over one of the last few remaining tables in exhaustion, Kagura mused that such was to be expected after cramming what seemed to be the entirety of Kabukicho in one building.

Next to an upturned bookshelf, an eighteen-year-old Seita seemed to be regaling an unbelievable story to Hinowa, the older woman laughing loudly as he did so. Beside them, Tsukuyo sat with the rest of the now older Diamond Perfume group, mildly smoking from her kiseru as Sarutobi argued with Otae and Kyubei attempted to pacify, Toujou and Kondo watching dutifully from a distance.

A little ways away, the homeless men, led unsurprisingly by Madao, were badgering Shinpachi for the macadamia nuts promised to them by the Shimuras in return for their assistance at the library. Though Hasegawa’s wife had allegedly taken him back, the man was still clearly not beneath extorting people for free food. Amongst his homeless brethren, Kagura thought she even saw an unkempt man looking suspiciously like Katsura, sporting a hilariously fake moustache and long spiky hair tucked into a worn beanie. Like Hasegawa, he too wore a beat up box around his waist, and upon making eye contact with her, the Zura lookalike gave her an exaggerated wink and thumbs up. Kagura rolled her eyes and glanced surreptitiously to Hijikata and his men, all of whom fortunately, were distracted in their task of separating Saigou and his entire club (a drag queen group no less terrifying since Kagura had seen them last) from Kyoushirou and his own host club. 

The only moderately quiet part of the building seemed to be the library's _Jump_ section, where Gintoki was locked in another fistfight but with Hatorri Zenzou as his opponent. Absorbed in their battle over a magazine, neither seemed to register the presence of the raggedly dressed child beside them attentively reading Hunger x Hunger, nor the child's mysterious resemblance to Asahi in a moustache.

Though all were absorbed in their own activities, there was one factor the entire crowd seemed to have in common; at four in the afternoon, almost all had abandoned their work. This, of course, included Kagura and her future self. The latter in particular, claimed to have expanded her research to magazines, and had gone through three in the last half hour — currently, she was in the middle of her fourth. Next to her, Kagura’s form lay limp over the table, her head tucked into her arms above the wooden surface. Many times she had attempted to fall asleep, only to find that the current ambience of the library was far too loud for it. Out of boredom, she angled her face slightly to read the cover of the older Kagura’s magazine.

“Edo Monthly,” she said aloud, “newest scandals brought to you by Hanano Ana.” Underneath was a picture of Terakado Tsuu singing at her latest concert, her trademark purple hair now a bright pink.

The older Kagura merely hummed in reply, not looking up from her magazine. Kagura’s expression soured. “You’re so boring,” she huffed, to which she received another impassive hum. Childishly sticking out her tongue, Kagura made to moodily turn away before she noticed her future self playing idly with a necklace hanging around her neck.

“What’s that?” she asked, unable to help her curiosity.

“Huh?”

“ _That,_ ” said Kagura, pointing to the pink crystal that hung around the older Kagura’s neck.

The woman’s fingers stilled over the jewellery. “Oh,” she said, lifting the necklace so that the crystal would catch prettily in the light. “This? Sougo gave it to me as a present.”

“Figures,” Kagura grumbled, closing her eyes and relaxing again into her arms. “I’m guessing that is what made you fall in love with him?”

Her future self smirked, dropping the necklace. “Amongst other things,” she replied vaguely, returning to her magazine. 

Kagura opened one eye. “Do you ever regret it? Marrying him?”

The older Kagura sighed, snapping her magazine shut. “Why are you asking these questions all of a sudden?”

Kagura shrugged, feeling strangely guilty for clearly offending the woman beside her. “I don’t know,” she admitted, tilting her head to look around the library. Around her, she could see her friends talking, smiling, laughing. “It’s just weird, thinking that I — _we,_ could have such a future on Earth. I always thought I would become a badass alien hunter, yes. And now…”

“You think I am not a badass alien hunter?’

Kagura snapped to attention. “Are you?”

“Up until six years ago, it was my full-time occupation.”

Sitting up, Kagura asked incredulously, “why did you stop?”

Her future self raised an eyebrow amusedly. “I haven’t stopped. It’s just now I am only part-time, yes. Papi still asks me to come with him on jobs once a month — it pays very well.”

But Kagura was not to be satisfied. Waving an impatient hand, she said, “then why are you only part time? What happened?”

“Nothing!” said the older Kagura defensively. “Nothing happened. It’s just that…” her voice trailed off as she looked to somewhere across the room, “…I missed Earth.”

Kagura followed her gaze and found Sougo sitting cross legged on the floor of the children’s section, reading a book to Souchirou who was sitting in his lap. Even from the other side of the room, Kagura could see the softness of the older man’s expression, his mouth shaping exaggerated sound effect noises as he read, eliciting wild breaths of laughter from the small toddler cradled into his chest. 

The older Kagura smiled, a private turn of her lips so very much full of love. “I missed Earth,” she said again. “That’s all.”

At Kagura's expression, she continued, “we Yato are monsters — to make our mark on the battlefield, we fight and we fight and we keep on fighting because that is all we know what to do. Eventually… we all end up alone.” She paused, a faraway look in her eyes. “I like fighting. And I like being a badass alien hunter, yes. But here on Earth, I am not alone; I am not a Yato, and I am not Gura the Alien Huntress — I am Kagura.” 

The older woman touched her necklace and smiled. “I am not alone,” she repeated.

 _I like who I am when I am with him,_ Kagura heard.

And for the first time, she thought she understood.

She understood wanting to reach out into the depths of space and carve her name into every possible corner of the galaxy. She understood that itch to fight thrumming in her veins, the thrill of taking down a giant with her bare hands. But she also understood wanting to be more than an overpowered Yato, to live as she did on Earth — as Kagura of the Yorozuya, as Kagura-chan of Kabukicho, and as China girl to somebody who was her match in every way.

She understood that no infamy could ever compare to being herself in a family of people just as strange and out of place as her.

“I would not mind if this turned out to be my future,” said Kagura.

Her future self grinned, a thousand words and meanings left unsaid in the curve of her mouth.

Kagura heard them all.

They got back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was actually so difficult to write? I liked the beginning, and I liked the ending, but the middle was such a problem. I rewrote it over five times before finally deciding to settle on this version. The previous tries included a lot of awkward dialogue, but more of Gintoki, as well as Tsukuyo, Kyubei, and Sarutobi's antics, and while I liked it, it didn't feel quite right. I feel like this one had a better vibe, but tell me what you guys think anyway.
> 
> Before you say it though, I want you to know that I am very much aware that this was a slow moving chapter; there was not much in terms of plot nor did it really explain what the rest of the Gintama cast looks like or has been doing for the past ten years, but it was intended to better explore Kagura's feelings towards Okikagu. What I really wanted to communicate through this chapter was Kagura's initial lack of understanding towards her older self, since who she is now and who she is in ten years are two very different people. At the end of this chapter, however, it is shown that who they are at heart are the same, and in realising this, Kagura is finally able to acknowledge what Sougo would eventually mean to her, thus prompting her returning of his feelings.
> 
> The next chapter is much better in terms of plot, so if that it what you have been really looking forward to, then stay tuned! Sorry me updating took so long, but again, this chapter was so hard to write D: I hope you liked it (even if only just a little), and I sincerely hope you won't be afraid to let me know what you think about it. 
> 
> Hope to talk to you guys soon!


	10. Lesson 10: Always Be Kind To Those Working In Customer Service! They Have To Put Up With A Lot

“It’s been a week,” moaned Kagura, dragging her feet as she walked. “When are we going to find something that will help me?”

It had indeed been an entire week since their first collective visit to the library and Kagura was nowhere near closer to getting home. So far, the total sum of what they had found included no less than seven books dedicated to the impossibility of time travel written by either foreign or dead authors, five manga shounen novels merely involving time travel, and one old copy of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time borrowed from the film section.

Souichirou, riding on Sougo’s shoulders, only continued his singing of the Doraemon theme song in answer, shouting incoherently during the lines he couldn’t remember as he enthusiastically drummed on his father’s head. 

“Thanks, Souichi,” muttered Kagura, pouting from underneath her parasol. Sadaharu, walking alongside her, licked her arm in pity.

“Just be grateful I didn’t ditch you today,” said Sougo, setting down Souichirou on Sadaharu’s back before any further damage could be done to his head. “Unlike a certain somebody.” This was meant to be a jab at the older Kagura, who had sent Sadaharu in her place that day while she completed a Yorozuya job request with Gintoki — apparently, catching a runaway puppy was a two-person job.

Kagura immediately scoffed in offence. “Future me is just busy today, yes! And _unlike a certain somebody,_ ” she quoted with smug superiority, “she does not spend all her time chasing terrorists through the library!”

She was, of course, referring to the numerous amount of times Katsura had accidentally revealed himself to the Shinsengumi over the past seven days — though originally intending to help out Kagura at the library, the man’s terribly fake moustache had failed to conceal his identity on multiple occasions, often leading to all-out brawl, many wasted hours and several destroyed tables/bookshelves/actual books.

Before Sougo could retort, Souichirou suddenly stopped singing. “Papi, I want strawberries!” he announced, pointing to a convenience store across the road. 

Kagura raised an eyebrow. “Strawberries?” she repeated incredulously. “From there?”

Sougo sighed, but changed direction and headed toward the store. “He means strawberry milk,” the officer clarified over Souichirou’s happy cheers. “Danna kept sneaking him cartons when he was younger and now he’s obsessed.” He opened the store's wide double doors. “C’mon, Sadaharu,” said Sougo, gesturing for the dog to enter. From inside, Kagura could already make out the clerk’s loud protests. She coughed amusedly into her hand but said nothing. 

“…Relax, I’m an officer,” she heard Sougo saying as she walked in, catching him showing the clerk his police badge before walking away. The clerk looked as if he wanted to protest some more, but Kagura pointed plainly to the katana sheathed at Sougo’s hip, which was quick in prompting him to close his mouth and turn away in fear.

With a pleased hum, Kagura happily walked on and caught up with Sadaharu further into the shop, leading the Inugami down various aisles in order to point out various items of interest to Souichirou, who was still riding Sadaharu’s back and staring at the food stocked shelves with great excitement. She was in the middle of describing the heavenly flavour of a particular pack of chips when she was rudely interrupted by Sougo poking a carton of strawberry milk into her forehead.

“Enough about the chips, young China,” he said, handing the carton to Souichirou who shouted in delight. “We need to get back to the library.”

Kagura, angrily massaging her forehead, aimed a kick at his shin in retaliation. “What is even the point, yes? We will never find anything about time travel there.”

Sougo was already moving past her. “If you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”

Kagura’s mouth drew into a thin line. Beside her, Sadaharu barked in sympathy. “I know,” she said to the Inugami. “He is such a pig, yes?”

Souichirou looked up at her curiously from his carton of milk. “Mami not happy?” he asked, blue eyes innocently wide.

Kagura sighed, but ruffled his hair and smiled. “It’s not Mami,” she reminded him, only a little sad. “It’s Aunty Gura.”

They began to walk to the counter. Sougo was already there, watching the clerk nervously ring up several thin red boxes for him with mild disinterest. “You must be new,” he said suddenly. It was not so much a conversation starter as it was a statement. The clerk, a pimply-faced teenage boy, accidentally dropped onto the floor the box he had been in the middle of packing into a plastic bag. He dived for the fallen item and resurfaced looking extremely sweaty and stressed. “W-what makes you say that?”

“The owner always lets us walk in with our dog,” Sougo replied and gestured behind him to Kagura with his thumb. “On account of this glutton being her best customer.”

Kagura crushed the packet of chips in her hand in reply, letting the bag and its contents explode and fall to the floor in dust. The clerk squeaked but did not dare mention anything about extra charge. Instead, he hurriedly coughed and changed the subject. “I um, overheard you talking about time travel,” he offered, surreptitiously glancing to Souichirou’s milk carton before nervously tallying up the total of their purchases. “What is that about?”

“None of your business,” answered Kagura haughtily, staring down the pimply teenager with narrowed eyes.

If possible, the clerk began to sweat even further. “O-oh. I see,” he coughed again and handed them their plastic bag. “It’s just that it's funny — somebody came in here the other day, told me he was a time travel expert—“

“What?” both Kagura and Sougo spoke sharply in unison.

The clerk’s eyes widened. “Um, t-the other day, a man came in and we talked for a bit, he said he specialised in time travel and I said—“ Kagura reached over the counter and grabbed the teenager’s collar before he could finish. “What does he look like?!” she demanded, “where can we find him?!”

Trembling underneath her grip, the clerk stammered, “h-he has red hair! Wears glasses! Has a p-piercing above his lip! He said he often visits Kunoichi Cafe down the street!” 

Satisfied, Kagura released his shirt, letting him collapse onto the floor in shock. She turned to Sougo wearing a manic grin. “Guess what, Sadist? I _do_ have a better idea.”

Seconds later, they were outside and moving towards the cafe. “Here,” said Sougo, thrusting the plastic bag in his hand to Kagura.

“I don’t want to carry trash!”

Sougo smacked the bag into her face. “Then don’t eat trash in the first place, you pig.”

Irritated but grudgingly curious, Kagura opened the bag and stopped in surprise. Close up, she could clearly see her favourite brand of sukonbu marked on each of the thin red boxes packed inside. 

Kagura felt strangely touched. “Thank you, Sadist,” she said sincerely.

Sougo did not look at her, but he waved a hand in reply. The gesture was simple, but genuine, and Kagura could have sworn her heart skipped a beat. She quickly shook her head to rid herself of the blush she could feel blooming on her cheeks, and hurriedly reached into the bag to rip open a box of sukonbu. 

They soon reached Kunoichi Cafe. “I wonder if Sacchan is working today,” Kagura wondered aloud, pushing open the double doors. 

“You’ve got your priorities mixed up, young China,” said Sougo, lifting Souichirou from Sadaharu’s back and stepping into the cafe.

Kagura rolled her eyes but made no further comment. Turning to Sadaharu, she told him to wait outside. Offended, Sadaharu barked once into her face to communicate his displeasure before sulking off, presumably to either chase a poor unsuspecting cat or to pee against the wall of somebody’s store. Kagura watched the Inugami depart with some guilt but had no choice but to venture into the cafe where Sougo was already scanning the room for their time travel expert. He suddenly raised his eyebrows. “There,” he said, pointing towards a man matching the clerk’s description seated at a table in the back. 

“He does not look like an expert, yes,” frowned Kagura, watching with apprehension as the bespectacled red-haired man scarfed down an entire plate of cakes.

“Don’t pretend to be pious, young China,” said Sougo as they moved towards the back table. “I’ve seen you eat with manners far worse.”

“If we are talking about manners, you should definitely be first to improve yourself, yup.”

Upon their reaching the table, the redheaded man started in surprise but managed to school his features into a neutral expression. “Can I help you?” he asked politely, his lip piercing almost sparkling in the artificial light of the cafe.

“I’m a cop,” said Sougo by way of introduction. “Today I’m arresting every redheaded man I see unless they happen to be time travel experts, in which case I can make an exception.”

The man blinked. “Well, as it happens—“

“Good,” said Kagura, slipping into the seat opposite the man. “My name is Kagura. I am not supposed to be here, yes.”

“I, er, don’t suppose it has something to do with time travel?”

"Now how did you know that?” said Sougo wryly, taking the remaining seat beside Kagura. Souichirou sat on his lap, happily alternating between loudly slurping from his carton of strawberry milk and chewing on the strip of sukonbu Kagura had given him, watching the man across him with great interest.

The redhead pushed up his glasses. “Lucky guess.”

Kagura quickly gave him a condensed version of her story. The man remained quiet throughout its entirety, only breaking his silence to hum occasionally at certain parts. When she had finished, he merely took off his glasses and began to clean them. “Very interesting,” he muttered. He continued to murmur under his breath for quite a while, with Kagura only just managing to hear the words ‘impossible,’ and ‘theorised,’ and ‘capacitor.’

Beside her, Sougo was impatiently tapping a foot. “What did you say your name was again?” he asked, frowning.

The man started. “Oh. Um, Yamamoto Takeshi.”

Sougo raised an eyebrow. “Are you a well-known expert, Yamamoto-san? I don’t remember your name from our time travel research.”

Yamamoto’s face took on a constipated expression. “I am not a published expert. All of the research I do is for myself — I first took an interest in time travel when my wife and child died in a car accident. Searching for a way to get them back was what helped me cope. I eventually learned it was impossible, but by then, I had already found the topic too irresistible to stop.

Underneath the table, Kagura delivered a sharp kick to Sougo’s leg before he could open his mouth and comment on how he didn’t think fathers could have piercings (and on their face no less). “I am very sorry,” said Kagura to Yamamoto, ignoring Sougo’s hiss of pain. “He’s an idiot who did not mean to bring up such a terrible memory, yes.”

Yamamoto attempted to smile, which only served to exaggerate his constipated expression. “It is quite alright; I moved on long ago. But as I said, the research I have conducted since then has purely been for… recreation. If you are interested in reading it, I would be happy to give you a copy.”

Kagura nodded eagerly. “That would be awesome, yes! Thank you, Yama-san!”

Yamamoto’s face finally eased into something akin to satisfaction. “It’s no problem. Only, I don’t have any of my research with me at the moment. We will have to meet up again in order for me to pass it on.” He turned to Sougo curiously. “You work at the Shinsengumi, don’t you Okita-san? I could drop by tomorrow and give you the research then.”

“Sure,” Sougo affirmed distractedly, his attention mainly focused on attempting to secretly nurse his leg without disturbing Souichirou on his lap. Yamamoto beamed. “Excellent,” he said and stood up. “Tomorrow it is then.”

Kagura also stood up and managed to bow politely, thanking Yamamoto again. When he had departed, she sat back down looking extremely pleased. “This is it!” she said excitedly. “This could be my way home!”

Sougo ignored her and began freely rubbing his injured leg. “Did you have to kick so hard?” he complained.

Souichirou was blowing bubbles in his milk. “The red man is weird,” he said, pieces of sukonbu around his mouth. Kagura reached out to pat his head. “All redheaded men are,” she replied solemnly.

Once out of the store and reunited with Sadaharu (who was now in a better mood after apparently releasing a bucket’s worth of piss on Kunoichi’s neighbouring store), Sougo proposed that they walk to the library. “It’s not even that far,” he said in response to Kagura’s loud moans of protest. “Even your fat ass can make it, young China.”

“We already have the information we need!” argued Kagura. “We don’t _need_ to go to the library!”

Sougo merely shrugged. “Maybe the information will be useless. You never know.”

Kagura scowled. “You just don’t want to go back to work, yes!” she said, pointing an accusatory finger. “In the library you get to sleep all day!”

“Whatever you say, young China,” said Sougo, and walked away. 

Kagura scowled, but unsure of the way back to the Okita residence from Kunoichi cafe, she had no choice but to reluctantly follow. Within ten minutes, she could already see the library in the distance.

Desperate to escape what would surely be hours of boredom, she held out an open hand to Sougo, who in return raised a sceptical eyebrow. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means ‘give me money,’” said Kagura. “I want to buy peach tea, yes.”

“Screw that, use your own money.”

“I don’t have any! And anyway, you are my husband, yes? It is your duty to give up your wallet to your wife so that she can clean it out.”

“Since when did wives run the mafia? And you aren’t my wife yet,” Sougo reminded with a smirk. “But isn’t somebody eager.”

Kagura felt her face glow red. “I am not eager to marry you! I am just accepting my fate and using it to my advantage to buy peach tea, yes!”

Sougo looked ready to tease her some more, but at that moment, Souichirou began poking him in the cheek. “I want tea too,” he said, sadly holding up his empty milk carton. “The strawberries are finished.”

Kagura grinned triumphantly. She knew now without a doubt that Sougo would cave, and predictably, he did, sighing and setting Souichirou on the ground. “Fine,” he said, reluctantly digging into his back pocket. “But I’m not giving you my wallet — we’d be broke faster than I could give it to you.” He opened the black leather and tossed Kagura 600 yen in coins. “Happy?”

She caught them with ease and tucked them into her pocket. “Very.”

Sougo rolled his eyes and began walking away. “Take Souichirou with you. I’m going to the library — China’s bound to be there by now.” He left, leaving behind Kagura, Souichirou, and Sadaharu.

“C’mon, Souichi,” Kagura grinned, taking Souichirou’s small hand into her own. “I think I saw a vending machine somewhere over there.”

With Sadaharu walking alongside them, they arrived at said machine located a little ways off from the library. Kagura looked down thoughtfully at Souichirou before breaking into a smile and moving to pick him up. “Okay,” she said, hoisting the toddler up to better sit at her hip. “What are we getting?”

“Tea!” giggled Souichirou. “With peaches!”

“That’s right!” encouraged Kagura. “And which can is it?”

Souichirou narrowed his eyes in concentration, scanning each and every colourful aluminium can lined up behind the vending machine’s glass window with great thought. Finally, his expression lightened. “That one!” he said proudly, pointing to a shiny red can located at the centre of the machine’s middle row. He held up ten fingers. “Number 10!”

Sadaharu barked in congratulations. Kagura cheered in agreement. “Good job, Souichi!” she beamed. “Now all we have to do is buy the can!” 

Kagura set Souichirou down scanned the keypad. Number 10... It was interesting number, she thought. A lot of the most important events in her life were centered around the numeral itself. She was ten when her brother tore off her father's arm, and she was ten when he left and never came back. Her pet turtle, Sadaharu 10, was once kidnapped by the neighborhood children in her street, and it was Sadaharu 10's death at the hands of said children that taught her how to throw a punch with the power of a hundred grown men. 

Ten was an interesting number.

The irony was not lost on her as she inputted the appropriate 1 and 0 into the keypad. Even before her time travel dilemma had even begun, she was buying a cherry soda allocated at another vending machine's tenth slot. It should only be fitting for her to have accidentally time travelled exactly ten years into the future. 

She paused.

Wait.

Ten. Like the can of cherry soda she had tried to buy.

Ten. Like the amount of years she had time travelled by. 

Her fingers went slack over the keypad.

“No way,” Kagura laughed shakily. “There is no way, right? It is just a coincidence, right?”

Sadaharu and Souichirou looked at her curiously. “Mami?” asked Souichirou. “What’s wrong?”

Kagura's hands flew to her hair. “There is no way a vending machine sent me ten years into the future just because I tried to buy a cherry soda, right?!”

Sadaharu gently picked up Souichirou by the back of his collar and slowly began to back away.

Talking to herself, Kagura muttered, “but if it was the machine, then all I would need to do is use it again! All of my problems would be solved, yes! I just need to find it and — wait. It’s been ten years! It would be long gone by now! But if I could find the company manufacturer… no, that would take ages! I can’t even remember what it _looked_ like—“

She stopped, eyes widening. While the memory of the actual machine was indeed hazy, if Kagura recalled correctly, it had been set beside an unmarked garage. 

Surrounded by various piles of junk.

Next to what could have been a robot head.

“Souichi. Sadaharu,” said Kagura suddenly.

Sadaharu, who had been gradually moving backwards, paused in his tracks, causing Souichirou (whose collar was still being held between the Inugami’s teeth) to swing slightly below Sadaharu's mouth. “Is Mami okay?” the toddler asked, quizzically tilting his head.

Kagura’s entire body seemed to glow a dangerous, red aura. “Mami is just fine,” she said, cracking her knuckles loudly. There was a crazed expression contorting her face when she finally looked up to meet them. Sadaharu and Souichirou both shrieked and moved to clutch each other out of fear.

Kagura’s mouth twisted upwards into a deranged grin. “I think it is time I finally meet up with Edo’s top inventor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, we all saw that coming. To all of you who have been asking about Gengai, you finally have an answer! Sorry about my vague replies, but this is what the story has been leading up to and I obviously didn't want to spoil anything. Hopefully, this chapter more than makes up for it though! If you were able to guess that the vending machine was the source of the problem, AND that Gengai made it, comment below and let me know ;D
> 
> This chapter was posted a little earlier than usual since I felt so bad about the uneventful chapter beforehand, but as a result, the next one won't be posted for a while (also I broke my laptop and am now using another one with a shitty keyboard, so if there are any typos please ignore them, I'm too tired to go back and proofread haha). I do, however, have a holiday coming up soon in two weeks, so after that I will have plenty of time to hopefully finish up the story. There are only about four chapters left and I for one, am very excited to move on and start writing some of the one shots I have in mind already. Are you looking forward to the ending? Why or why not? I would love to hear your thoughts :)
> 
> Again, I won't be posting for a while, but I will eventually, so stay tuned!


	11. Lesson 11: Too Many References Can Sometimes Be Overkill

“So,” said the older Kagura, watching her younger self scream herself hoarse and throw various robot heads aimed at Hiraga Gengai’s crotch. “You look like you have been busy.” 

Sougo tossed Kagura a wrench lying on the table next to him, which she responsively used as another projectile. “Your past self is the one who has been busy. I just wanted to take a nap.” 

Souichirou, holding onto the fabric of his mother's dress, glumly added, “I wanted tea peaches.” 

The older Kagura shook her head. “Are you done yet?” she called out to her younger counterpart. “You still have not told us why we are here.” 

Kagura, after missing her target for the fiftieth time, merely stabbed a finger in Gengai's direction and panted in short, angry wheezes, “ask. _Him._ ” 

“Saburou!” yelled Gengai, his head momentarily resurfacing from behind a makeshift shield comprised of takeaway containers. “Protect me!” 

The robot in question, however, was in no position to help from where he lay crushed underneath Sadaharu’s body weight. Evidently, the dog had taken a liking to Saburou as a temporary bed. 

Gengai made a noise of outrage. Ignoring this, Kagura shrieked, “nothing will protect you now, you stupid geezer! You are the reason I’m in this mess, yes!” 

Sougo raised an eyebrow. “Care to explain to the rest of us, young China?” 

Kagura whipped her head around in fury. “It was him! _He_ made that dumb vending machine that sent me to the future! Nobody else could do it!” 

“Vending machine?” repeated the older Kagura in surprise. 

“My tea peaches,” Souichirou whimpered. 

“You weren’t supposed to use it!” argued Gengai, moving out a little further from behind his shield. Though older and thinner, Kagura could see he looked no less insane than she remembered. “Nobody was! The time machine was just an experiment!" 

“Then why did you leave it out on the street, you bastard!” Kagura hollered. “ _Anybody_ could have used it!” 

“I was spring cleaning,” said Gengai defensively. “I left it outside for five minutes—” 

Kagura screamed and furiously dove for his neck. 

It took five minutes for the older Kagura and Sougo to successfully drag her away, and another thirty to calm her down. In that time, Souichirou was provided his desired can of peach tea, and Sadaharu an actual bed, allowing Gengai to pull out Saburou from underneath the Inugumi and begin his restoration. The former two sat off to the side while Gengai and the others remained at the centre of the garage. 

“Eleven years ago, an Amanto customer came in and asked me to fix up his motorcycle,” began Gengai, not looking up from where he sat cross-legged on the floor repairing Saburou. “An odd fellow, but nice enough. For my services, he paid me using a gem he had procured from his travels — said it came from planet Bourā Bōshi. The planet itself is famous; it’s said that at its core, a rare mineral possessing bizarre properties can be found, a mineral that when used correctly, can either speed up, or slow down time. When I heard about it, how could I not attempt to make a time machine?” 

“And you made it in the form of a vending machine?” scoffed the older Kagura. “A car would have been cooler, yes.” 

Sougo rolled his eyes. “How pedestrian of you, China. Everyone knows a camera would have made more sense.” 

“A camera? Have you finally lost your mind, idiot sadist—” 

“Shut up!” yelled Kagura impatiently. “I want to get to the part where this stupid geezer gives me a reason to smack him!” 

Gengai’s white beard bristled. “There _is_ no reason! It’s as I said: the time machine was an experiment. I tinkered with it when I had the time, but never got the chance to actually test it. I had just moved into a new garage since the _Shinsengumi,_ ” Gengai looked meaningfully at Sougo, “discovered my last one. I found a new place and kept my projects outside while I cleaned, which was when you must have used the machine.” 

It was Kagura’s turn to take offence. “How was I supposed to know it wasn’t a normal vending machine?! You filled it with real drinks, yes!” 

“Well," said Gengai primly, "those were for when I got thirsty while making it—“ 

Kagura launched herself at Gengai once again, screaming loud obscenities as she struggled in the grip of Sougo and her older self. 

Confident that she would be successfully held back, Gengai made no move to retreat, merely remaining seated as he twisted the last of the screws scattered by his feet into Saburou’s chest plate. “I don’t see why you’re getting so mad,” he said, applying the finishing touches. “If the time machine worked the first time, it will work again. I kept it specifically for this occasion — it would be a simple matter to send you back.” 

At this, Kagura stopped. “You still have it?!” she asked incredulously. 

“Of course! It was one of my best works,” said Gengai, patting Saburou’s chest with satisfaction. He stood up and pushed the robot to his feet. “Saburou, get the vending machine at the back of the garage. We’re going to need it.” 

“Roger,” replied the robot, before marching away in stilted movements. 

Sougo spoke up. “What did you mean when you said you kept it for this occasion?” 

“Well, ten years ago, after I finished cleaning out my garage, I realised that somebody had used my machine — I just didn’t know who. So I kept it and waited for that somebody to finally arrive and ask me to send them back.” 

“And now here we are,” said the older Kagura thoughtfully. 

“Here we are,” agreed Kagura sulkily. 

Saburou soon returned carrying the offensive vending machine in his hands. He set it down before Gengai and went away humming a song in a voice like harsh static. 

“Now,” said Gengai, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “Let’s get started.” 

Kagura felt her heart skip. “You mean I can go back _now?_ ” she said disbelievingly. 

“Provided everything is in order,” said Gengai from behind the vending machine as he carried out a few checks. He paused. “Which it isn’t.” 

This time, only Sougo made an attempt to restrain Kagura. Her older self seemed to finally be taking her side, preparing her parasol to fire a bullet up Gengai’s behind. “C’mon, you shitty geezer,” she spoke over Kagura’s incoherent shrieks. “Stop getting our hopes up, yes? Explain what the problem is now in less than five words or I blow your anal sphincter to bits."

Gengai rolled his eyes, but counted on his fingers, “the. Battery. Has. Run. Out.” 

The older Kagura blinked. “Battery?” 

“That was not less than five words! It was five words exact! Blow up his asshole, older me!” 

Ignoring Kagura, Gengai said, “the gem given to me by the Amanto from planet Bourā Bōshi — it functions as a battery for the time machine. You used up most of the entire piece that was already in it ten years ago when you travelled to the future.” 

Realising the meaning behind his words, Kagura stilled in Sougo’s arms. “So that’s it?” she said, devastated. “There is no way for you to send me back?” 

“Of course I can send you back,” said Gengai irritably. “I only said a piece didn’t I? Obviously, I still have a huge chunk left of that gem lying around somewhere. It’ll take me all night to find it, but—“ 

The older Kagura fired her parasol and gave chase to Gengai's hurriedly retreating form. “Stop leaving out vital information until last minute you stupid old man!” 

Sougo clicked his tongue in annoyance but was nonetheless grinning as he eased Kagura to a stand. “You hear that, young China? You get to go home.” 

In a daze, Kagura repeated deliriously, “I get to go home.” Then, with more excitement, “I get to go _home!_ ” 

Whooping loudly, she intercepted the older Kagura and began swinging the both of them around in giddy circles. “I’m gonna go home!” Caught in the euphoric delight of the moment, her future self began laughing along with her. 

Gengai, coming out from hiding behind Saburou, made an irritated face. “Don’t get too excited. Finding the battery and re-calibrating the time machine will take a while, so you will have to come back tomorrow,” he warned, though he too could also not help but smile. “But yes. You are going home.” 

Even after leaving Gengai’s garage, Kagura still felt untouchable. She rode ahead of the Okita family on Sadaharu’s back with her parasol on her shoulder, humming cheerfully as they went. 

“And to think we wasted all that time at the library,” said the older Kagura, shaking her head, “when all we had to do was visit the geezer. How did we not think of him before?” 

“Because fugitives of the law shouldn’t be the first people we think of asking for help,” replied Sougo dryly. 

“We asked Zura for help first,” the older Kagura pointed out. 

“No, _you_ asked Katsura for help and completely ignored me. Your husband. Spouse. Partner in life.” 

The older Kagura rolled her eyes. “You big baby.” 

“Speaking of Zura,” Kagura interjected, “we should let him and Asahi know about the machine! And Gin-chan, and Shinpachi, Anego, Gorilla, Mayora, and everybody! They all helped out so much, yes.” 

Walking in between his parents and swinging their hands, Souichirou suddenly snapped to attention. “Asahi!” he repeated excitedly. “Are we gonna go see?” 

Sougo frowned. “What are the chances our son has a crush on a terrorist’s daughter?” 

The older Kagura lifted an eyebrow. “High.” 

Without having heard them, Kagura continued, “we need to thank them, yes. Maybe we can give them a box of sukonbu each…” 

“It’s like you _want_ everybody to hate you, young China.” 

“Hey!” both Kaguras said in unison. 

Sougo rolled his eyes. “Just throw a party.” 

The older Kagura made a face, but paused in thought. “A party… is actually not a bad idea.”

Kagura began to nod enthusiastically. “A party!” she crowed, raising her parasol into the air. “That is exactly what we need!” 

On the way to the library in order to let everybody know the good news, it was decided that the celebration would be held at the Okita residence. Though the house was nowhere near big enough to host such a rambunctious group, the backyard was wide and spacious enough should a fight (inevitably) break out, and as per usual, one did. 

Unsurprisingly, it began with a bottle of sake and a dare. 

Almost three-quarters of the way to ‘set-everything-on-fire-drunk,’ Tsukuyo had challenged Gintoki to a horrible game involving piñatas, beam saber swords, and molotov cocktails supplied by a very sober Elizabeth. It was at this point Kagura began to sorely regret her lack of attempt in persuading Seita into forgoing alcohol in favour of Orimon C — severely drunk and teaching Souichirou and Asahi to play tic-tac-toe with shoes, the overarching result was that nobody (including Hinowa) was able to stop Tsukuyo from procuring sabers, Elizabeth from producing his highly volatile bombs, and Gintoki from drunkenly accepting the Death Courtesan’s challenge. 

From there, the party seemed to only grow more chaotic. 

“Leader,” called out a heavily inebriated Katsura. “ _Lea_ -der. What are you doing all the way up there?” 

‘All the way up there’ was referring to Kagura’s current perch on one of her older self’s cherry blossom trees. Several branches high off the ground, she was what one would call hiding out. Kagura told Katsura exactly this, but being absolutely cross-eyed wasted, the man only blinked repeatedly and slurred something along the lines of, “I’m going to join you.” The next few minutes was spent watching Katsura unsuccessfully clamber up the branches six times before finally achieving victory on his seventh try. 

“Now,” he said, settling into a clumsy sitting position beside Kagura. “Why are you— _hic_ —all the way up in the sky?” 

Kagura rolled her eyes. “Older me keeps showing people baby pictures of Souichi, and I was getting sick of it, yes.” She conveniently left out how over half of the photos featured Sougo with long hair and of how utterly incapable she was of handling the sight of it. Hastily, Kagura added, “plus, everything is on fire.” 

While the description was a stretch, it was not completely a lie. The spread of flames had been contained to Kondou’s jacket and a chair, but as the former kept running around screaming, it would not be impossible for the entire garden to soon catch ablaze. Katsura merely hummed, taking a swig from the bottle of sake clutched in his hand. He did not attempt to continue the conversation, and annoyed, Kagura could not help but speak to fill the silence. “Did you know that the sadist started growing out his hair when he turned twenty because he thought it looked cool?” she heard herself saying. “Older me said so. She told me that he cut it when Souichi was born because he kept pulling and putting food in it.” 

Katsura blinked. “What?” 

“And on Fridays they turn on the TV to watch Ladies 4, and Souichi will cry whenever a character cries and the sadist will make funny comments to cheer him up and older me will cover his eyes during kissing scenes.” Kagura smiled, examining her fingers from where they sat tightly wound together on her lap. “Souichi hasn’t started temple school yet because he’s only three, but he’s already talking about all the stuff he’s going to put in his backpack and the bento boxes he’ll eat, and the crayon drawings he’ll make.” 

She looked up at a night sky decorated with stars and the fast-moving black shapes of passing ships. “I want to see them. His drawings.”

Beside her, Katsura squinted as if trying his best to focus, and slurred, “then why don’t you?”

Kagura sighed. “Haven’t you been listening, Zura? Tomorrow I go home using Gengai’s stupid vending machine and then… everything will be over.” On the other side of the garden, she could see Souichirou helping a drunk Sarutobi braid flower crowns. Kagura bit her lip. “I should be happy, and I am. But everything will be over and I will have to wait ten years to see those drawings.”

Katsura hiccupped. “Eleven years… is a long time.”

Kagura patted his back. “Ten years, Zura,” she reminded him. “Ten years.” But as she said it, she knew that the difference didn’t matter.

She wanted a future where Gintoki snuck Asahi _Jump_ magazines and Souichirou strawberry milk, where Zura and his stupid waiter costume served customers at Ikumatsu’s side with his hair tied up in one of their daughter’s colourful scrunchies, where Shinpachi’s students called him sensei because they wanted to, because he was their teacher and Koudoukan Dojo was their school. 

She wanted a future where Seita had a girlfriend and Tsukuyo and Hinowa would mercilessly tease him about it, where Sarutobi would slip her hand into Zenzou’s and he would pretend he wasn’t blushing, where Kyubei wore lolita dresses on wednesdays, Hasegawa championed for the rights of homeless men, and the hosts worked together in one beautifully awful club.

She wanted this: 

A green garden, wide blue pond, and a stone path leading up to the door. 

Three pairs of shoes sitting side by side on the landing, one small, one large, and one hers. 

Bullet holes in the walls, thin lines of a katana embedded in the furniture, and an Inugami's claw marks scratched into the floor. 

Easy, slow mornings, and conversations talking about nothing and everything. 

Fast, unpredictable dinners, and thrilling food fights above and below a table straining to hold a feast fit for twenty men. 

A sadist to open the front door and announce he was home. 

A husband to love until death did them part. 

A little boy to explore Kabukicho with. 

A son to bring into the world. 

A family she could call her own. 

It was a longing so empty and simultaneously full that it left her terrified of how badly she craved it, how badly she wanted to stay. What would she do if she went back to her own time only for Sougo to not love her back? What would she do if Katsura never ended up being honest with the woman he loved? If the Shimuras had to keep bribing students with macadamia nuts for the rest of their lives? 

"I want to go home," Kagura whispered, "but at the same time, I dont. If I ruin things and the future doesn't turn out the same as it is now... It'll be just as lonely as Rakuyo." As an afterthought, she added quietly, "a lot can happen in ten years."

Blinking slowly, Katsura thoughtfully took a sip from his bottle of sake. “That sounds familiar.”

“It should. Your wife has some good one-liners, yes.”

Next to her, Katsura politely pretended to not notice Kagura's tears. 

“C’mon young China, spit it out,” said Sougo the following morning as they walked the long trek from the train station to Gengai’s garage. “You’ve barely said anything since breakfast. What’s the matter? Aren’t you excited?” 

“I _am_ excited,” said Kagura weakly. “I am just thinking, yes? Stop being so stupid.” 

The older Kagura raised an eyebrow but did not comment. 

Skipping ahead of them, Souichirou was first to reach the garage. “Old man!” he called out, inquisitively peering past the door. “Are you here?” 

“Souichirou!” Kagura heard Gengai say in relief. “Where are your parents? We have a problem.” 

“Problem?” said Sougo, as they reached the garage. “What problem?” 

Kagura looked past the door and saw Gengai standing in the middle of the room, scratching his head in bewilderment. Beside him was an empty space where a vending machine should have been.

“The time machine,” he said. “It’s missing."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some very important things about this chapter; 
> 
> There were three major references mentioned (hence, the dumb secret meaning behind this chapter's title lmao), all of them time travel related, of course. If you got any of them (or all), be sure to comment below so that I can squeal with you about them!
> 
> 1\. "Planet Bourā Bōshi" - For those of you who don't speak Japanese and/or are inept in all things google translate, Bourā Bōshi directly translates to 'bowler hat' in English. If you have watched Meet The Robinsons before, there's a fun little thing for you ;)
> 
> 2\. “A car would have been cooler, yes.” - I am a sucker for time travel related stories, and Back To The Future is a classic. I can't recall how many times I've re-watched it, but as tribute to the best movie franchise out there, an offhand mention of the Delorean was included for you fellow fans.
> 
> 3\. "A camera would have made more sense.” - Of course, I could not complete this story without at least one reference to the Be Forever Yorozuya movie. I re-watched it for the eighth time last week, and predictably, I lost my fucking shit and cried my eyes out, because when am I ever _not_ going to cry when watching that cinematic masterpiece of a movie? (side note, Sougo with a long ponytail has me drooling each time I see him and I would literally die for him, but that's neither here nor there)
> 
> Sorry about the wait and for leaving you guys with a cliffhanger, but not to worry, all will be resolved soon ;)
> 
> Until next time!


	12. Lesson 12: Always Be Wary Of Liars In Your Midst! They Could Be Anywhere

There was a beat of silence.

Two beats.

Three—

“WHAT DO YOU _MEAN_ THE TIME MACHINE IS ‘MISSING?!’”

“Missing,” repeated Gengai’s robot. “an adjective meaning ‘not able to be found due to something not being in its expected place—“

“ _Shut up!_ ” Kagura yelled, and kicked the robot in the shin. 

“Saburou!” hollered Gengai, rushing over immediately. “What did the mean girl do?!”

“Kick!” said Souichirou, who playfully delivered another devastating attack to Saburou’s leg, causing the robot to dramatically tip over backwards. Gengai shrieked in horror.

“It’ll be worse if you don’t start talking, you shitty geezer,” Kagura scowled, readying her parasol.

The older Kagura crossed her arms. “What she said.”

From where he was cradling Saburou’s dented body on the floor, Gengai made a flustered noise. “It’s not my fault! I found the battery and finished calibrating the machine last night, but when I woke up this morning it was gone!”

Kagura threw up her hands in frustration. "It didn't just disappear, yes! _Somebody_ must have taken it!"

At that moment, Sougo’s phone began to ring. Sighing, he flipped the device open and pressed it to his ear. “Yamazaki,” he spoke into the speaker, “I’m kind of busy right now.”

“Ah, sorry Captain,” came Yamazaki’s tinny voice, “but there is a ‘Yamamoto Takeshi’ here at the gate asking for you. He says you are expecting him?”

Kagura’s eyes widened. “That’s it!” she cried, snapping her fingers. “Yama stole the machine! Remember yesterday he was telling us about how his wife and kid died in that car crash? He must have followed us to Gengai’s place—“

“And took the machine to change the past!” finished the older Kagura indignantly.

Sougo looked to Gengai. “You have any cameras?”

“Never needed them,” the older man replied. “Saburou was always there standing guard.”

Kagura scrunched her face. “Where was he last night?”

“Well, a while back I made him this lady-bot friend and—“

“Oi, oi!” interrupted the older Kagura in alarm, hastily moving to cover Souichirou’s ears. “Not one more word, you hundred-year-old pervert!”

Gengai raised his eyebrows and clicked his tongue. “Anyway. The garage had no protection last night — anybody could’ve taken it.

Sougo rolled his eyes and said to the still patiently waiting Yamazaki, “tell him to wait in my office,” before flipping his phone shut.

“You’re just going to let him in?” said Kagura incredulously. “Just like that?”

“We have no evidence that Yamamoto took the machine,” said Sougo pointedly. “But as far as he knows, he’s only at the Shinsengumi to deliver his research papers - if we can interrogate him while he’s there without tipping him off, he might just slip up.”

The older Kagura raised an eyebrow. “And if it doesn’t work?” 

“Then while I'm keeping him distracted, you and Yamazaki look through our archives to see if you can dig up some dirt on him.”

“You think there is something to find?”

Sougo shrugged. “Better safe than sorry.”

Kagura opened her parasol. “I guess that leaves me to ask around Kabukicho for suspicious men seen carrying a vending machine, yes?”

“You might as well do something,“ said Gengai.

In unison, the two Kaguras rounded on him in fury. “SHUT UP!”

Soon after, the group split, Kagura and Sadaharu in one direction, and Souichirou and his parents in the other.

“Bye, bye, Sadaharu! Bye, bye, Mami!” waved Souichirou. Kagura smiled and waved back until the family disappeared from sight. She sighed, giving the empty street one last sad glance before finally walking away. Sadaharu, sensing her hesitation, curiously nudged her arm.

“I’m fine,” said Kagura, attempting to reassure the giant dog. “Just tired, yes.”

He nudged her again. Kagura groaned. “Okay,” she admitted. “Maybe I am not fine. It’s just that I thought I would be home by now, you know? But now we have to go on another wild goose chase and I’m angry about it, but…" now that the initial panic of hearing the machine was missing, she realised, "...I’m also happy. Happy that I get to stay here a little a bit longer.”

She thought of Souichirou and of how over breakfast that morning he had spent ten minutes babbling about the latest Doreamon episode while Sougo cooked sunny side up eggs in the kitchen. She thought of her older self humming quietly as she set the table, and remembered more than ever wanting to _be_ her, to be a part of those kind of moments forever.

“The thing is, Sadaharu,” said Kagura to the Inugami, “I want to go — but if I do, I will have to wait ten years to meet the you right now. And what if on the way to making this exact future, something goes wrong?” Her grip on the handle of her parasol tightened. “I guess what I am trying to say is… I’m scared.”

Next to her, Sadaharu quietly whined. Kagura scratched underneath his chin and breathed out a long sigh before squaring her shoulders. “But enough of that,” she said, pressing her lips together in a determined frown. “First, we find that stupid vending machine.”

The first nine people she asked turned out to be no help, citing that during the possible time of the theft, they were either sleeping or out in the city. The tenth person however, an old man running the newspaper agency close by, gave Kagura her lucky break.

“My eyes aren’t how they used to be,” he had said, “and they’re even worse at night. But what I saw _could_ have been a vending machine. There were definitely two figures carting off that giant box though, not one.”

That had left Kagura confused. If it had been Yamamoto who had stolen the machine, who could the second person have been? 

“Maybe it was that store clerk,” she joked, spinning her parasol. “The one that told us about the expert? The two of them could have been in cahoots the whole time, yup.”

Sadaharu barked, excitedly running circles around her. “You think it was him too?” grinned Kagura. “Well, it is not like we’ll get any more answers here. Let’s go and ask him, yes?”

Luckily, she remembered the way to the general store, where predictably, the same pimply teenager was working behind the counter. Upon her entering, the clerk squeaked in fear. “Oi, you,” said Kagura, reading his name tag, “Haru. I have some questions for you, yes — about that time travelling man from yesterday.”

For some reason, this made the Haru the clerk sweat even further. “W-what are you-“

“Don’t lie,” Kagura drawled, moving her parasol to point at the space between his eyes. “You know who I am talking about.”

Sadaharu panted in support. In a bored manner, Kagura asked, “are you in cahoots together?”

There was a long pause.

Suddenly, Haru began to cry in earnest. “I’m not a b-bad person!” he wailed loudly, “it’s just that h-he paid me to do it!”

Kagura blinked. She had not been expecting an actual confession. “Huh,” she said, as Haru continued to cry. “So you _did_ take the vending machine?”

The clerk sniffled. “What?”

“What?”

There was snot dripping from Haru’s nose when he hesitantly asked, “what vending machine?”

Kagura was beginning to get frustrated. She angrily shook her parasol at him and yelled, “did you steal my machine with that time travelling man or did you not?!”

On the other side of the counter, Haru stumbled back looking as if he were one second away from wetting himself. “I d-don’t know about any machine! I was talking about how that man p-paid me to lie about him being an expert in time travel!”

Kagura’s grip on her parasol went slack. _“What?”_

Haru, nervously glancing to the now growling Sadaharu, replied shakily, “t-two days ago, the red-haired man asked if you or the police officer had c-come in, and when I told him you hadn’t, he told me to tell you that when you did, h-he was a time travel expert and that you could find him at Kunoichi café—“

Kagura seized the collar of Haru’s shirt. “You lied to us!” she shrieked. “And for what?! A couple of yen?!”

“It wasn’t just money!” Haru moaned, “he carried a sword at h-his hip! I thought it would be easier if I let him p-pay me than threaten me!”

Kagura’s face paled a deathly white. She let go of the clerk’s shirt. “We need to go,” she gasped to Sadaharu. “Now!”

Because nowadays, there were only two kinds of people who carried real swords out in public. Police officers—

and terrorists.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the plot thickens!
> 
> Sorry it took so long to post such a short chapter, but I actually had to write ahead in order to determine what information I could keep in this chapter, and information that I would have to save for the next. The result of all of that, however, is that I now have a rough draft of the next two chapters coming up, so after some fine tuning and editing, I think I could finish up the story before the end of July (not that it's begun yet, but I go back to school next week so that will for sure take up almost all my time). I also need to get started on the epilogue, which I think will be less than 1000 words? But knowing me I'll probably go overboard again with dialogue sooo... we'll see. Speaking of which though, notice how there are now 15 chapters in the summary even though I said I only had four more chapters to go in Lesson 10? That would be because I also split up two of those chapters into three because one was just so. Damn. Long. Anyway, if you were bothered by that, then there's your explanation.
> 
> I know this chapter was pretty badly paced and that there was more expositional dialogue than fluff, but I hope you guys liked it anyway and that you're excited for the next one! Please leave a comment if you did as I love chatting with you guys, even if only briefly ;)
> 
> Until the next chapter!


	13. Lesson 13: You Know That Saying 'Don't Talk To Strangers?' That's Because They Could be Serial Killers

Riding on Sadaharu’s back, Kagura made it to the Shinsengumi in record time. 

Bursting through the front gate, they skidded to a halt in front of the building. The two guards standing by didn’t even flinch — Evidently, dramatic entrances made by either Kagura were commonplace. “Take care of my dog!" she shouted to the guards, not looking back as she hurried past the front door. She thought she might have them call back, “sure thing, Nee-san!” but panicked as she was, she didn’t take the time to notice.

Quickly, she moved to the right hallway splitting off from the main room, but accidently slammed into a broad chest in her haste.

“China girl!” said Kondou in surprise. “What are you—“

“Sougo!” said Kagura, her eyes wide. She grabbed Kondou’s arms and shook him back and forth. “Where is he?!”

Kondou looked taken aback. “In his office, with that Yamamoto-san—“

Kagura did not stay to hear the rest, quickly maneuvering around Kondou in her haste. “Sougo!” she yelled, frantically running towards the direction of Sougo’s office. “He’s not who you think he is!”

In said office, all three occupants heard Kagura’s desperate shouts.

Looking up from where he sat playing with Sougo’s stamps, Souichirou curiously tilted his head. “Mami?”

Closer than before, they heard Kagura yell, “get away from him!”

Sougo sharply turned his head from the door to meet Yamamoto’s eyes. Kagura’s voice boomed throughout the compound. “HE’S A TERRORIST!”

On the other side of Sougo’s desk, Yamamoto grabbed Souichirou before his father could fully unsheathe his sword. “Don’t move,” said Yamamoto, his expression panicked. He pressed a knife from his pocket against Souichirou’s small throat. “Don’t move!

Kagura threw open the door. “Sougo—“ she gasped, only to freeze midway upon realising the scene before her. Yamamoto stumbled back as far as he could whilst still sitting down and carrying Souichirou. “DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!”

Sougo slowly slid his sword back into his scabbard, taking care to let Yamamoto see his every move. “Okay,” he said, setting the weapon down on his desk. “Nobody’s going to kill you.” He sent a significant look to somebody standing behind Kagura as he spoke, and belatedly, she realised Kondou must have followed her. Sougo placed his hands openly atop his desk. “Just let our kid go.”

Souichirou suddenly began to cry. “My stamps,” he whimpered, looking to the molds scattered across the floor.

Kagura quietly groaned.

“Souichirou,” said Sougo sharply, “don’t say anything.”

This seemed to only upset Souichirou even further. “My stamps!” he said, this time much louder.

“SHUT UP!” yelled Yamamoto, pressing the knife even further into Souichirou’s neck.

Sougo’s hands were shaking above the desk. Kagura was attempting to calculate how quickly she could move and seize Yamamoto’s arm before he realised what was happening when she suddenly took notice of Souichirou’s expression. 

Instinctively, Kagura took a step back. _Kamui,_ she thought.

Souichirou grabbed Yamamoto’s hand. For some reason, the man was unable to release his wrist from the toddler’s tiny grip. “What’re you—“

“I. Want. My. STAMPS!” screeched Souichirou, and with great power, he launched Yamamoto across the room, sending him flying past both Kagura and Kondou and crashing into the wall behind them.

Kagura's mouth fell open. 

Sougo scrambled over his desk and swept Souichirou into a crushing hug. “ _Shit,_ ” he breathed, burying his face into the boy's small shoulder. “Shit.”

“Language,” said Kagura automatically. She paused once she realised what she had done. Sougo met her eyes. They smiled in relief.

“Papi,” whined Souichirou, reaching out a hand to his stamps, “I still wanna play.”

“Ah,” his father coughed, reluctantly letting him go. “Right.”

From the hallway outside, a voice said in surprise, “is that a detonator?!”

Kagura and Sougo turned to look out the door, where Kondou was taking charge of Yamamoto’s arrest. Having searched through Yamamoto’s pockets, one of the four presiding officers was holding up what indeed looked to be a detonator to a bomb.

Kondou, looking unusually serious, grimaced at the sight. “Get the bomb squad,” he told the officer, and glancing at Yamamoto's dazed form, he continued to the remaining three men with him, “and take this man to the interrogation room.”

They officers went off to do as they were told. Only then did Kondou enter the office, his face slackening and taking on an entirely different expression. “SOUICHI!” he wailed, rushing over to the toddler who by now had happily resumed his stamping. “Are you okay?! Did the bad man hurt you?!” 

Souichirou looked up from where he sat in Kondo’s huge embrace. “Hm?” he said, before showing Kondou one of the molds in his hand. “Do you wanna stamp?”

Sougo, still sitting on the floor, collapsed backwards with a long drawn out sigh. “Damn it, kid,” he said, but he was grinning. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

"Good," said Kagura, fully stepping into the office. "Die."

From the floor, Sougo flipped her off.

Kagura went to ruffle Souichirou’s hair. “I’d forgotten you were half Yato,” she told the toddler, and then amended with a wistful smile, “half me.” 

Sougo glanced at her strangely, but Kondou, not noticing the change in her voice, merely looked up at her and beamed. “China girl, how did you know that Yamamoto was a terrorist?”

Kagura had the decency to look a little sheepish. “Actually,” she winced, “I didn’t. At least, not for sure, yes. I was talking with the store clerk from yesterday when I accidentally scared him into telling me that Yama was lying about his identity. Apparently, he also usually carries a sword, so…”

“You just assumed,” Sougo supplied. Kagura scowled.

“But it figures,” the man continued. “All of the ‘research’ he brought just looks like a word for word version of the stuff we saw at the library. And when I told him to sum it up for me, all he could say was some shit about a flux capacitor.”

“Shit!” Souichirou repeated.

_“No.”_

Suddenly, one of the officers reappeared at the office door. “We have a problem, Commander,” he said, looking extremely nervous. Kondou immediately sobered, seamlessly slipping back into his professional attitude. “What happened?”

“Um,” said the officer, his eyes darting anxiously between Kagura and Sougo. “Well, we managed to get that Yamamoto man into the interrogation room, but, uh…”

Sougo sighed, sitting up. “Spit it out.”

The officer inhaled sharply. “Captain,” he said, addressing Sougo, “on the way, somebody saw fit to alert your wife of what transpired here a few minutes ago, and now… well, she’s beating Yamamoto to a pulp in the interrogation room, Sir.”

For a moment, nobody seemed quite sure what to do. Kagura herself was torn between wanting to laugh and joining her older self. But then—

“Souichi,” said Sougo, waiting until Souichirou had looked up from his stamps. “How would you like to see Mami rip off somebody’s arm?”

Souichirou’s eyes lit up. “Fun!”

Before Kagura knew it, Sougo had already picked him up and was at the door. He briskly moved past the officer and yelled back, “you’re going to miss the show, young China!” before disappearing. Kagura grinned, scrambling to her feet. "Wait for me, bastard!” she hollered after him, quickly following in his footsteps.

The officer watched them go with something like disbelief and amusement in his expression. “Shouldn’t we be stopping her?" he asked Kondou. 

The older man stood up and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “It _is_ our duty,” said Kondou, though he was grinning. “But there’s also no rush.”

Upon their arrival at the interrogation room, the three found Hijikata watching uninterestedly through the one-way glass window as the older Kagura attempted to crush Yamamoto’s face with her fist. He turned at the sound of them quickly filing in. “About time,” he said.

Kagura was the first to reach the window. Joining Hijikata in watching through the glass, she felt herself truly relax for the first time that day, now that she was witnessing firsthand the older Kagura take care of Souichirou’s would-be attacker — or at least, try to. From what she could see, the woman was having difficulty controlling her speed in a tiny enclosed room, and as Yamamoto kept squirreling away, she had yet to land a devastating hit. During one of the older Kagura’s more powerful lunging punches (in which her fist went right through the wall of the interrogation room), Hijikata studied Souichirou carefully. “He okay?” he asked Sougo.

Sougo did not have to reply. Immediately spotting his mother through the window, Souichirou beamed and smacked a hand against the glass. “Mami!” 

The older Kagura’s head snapped towards their direction. “Souichirou!” she said in relief, despite not being able to see them through the window. She rushed over to the door leading to the next room and hurried past the officer standing guard, throwing herself onto Sougo and her son. "Thank you," she breathed, laughing as Souichirou cheered into her hair and as Sougo tightly encircled an arm around her waist. 

Kagura watched the family embrace and smiled, forcing herself to quash the empty feeling of jealousy in her chest. She turned back to the glass and watched Yamamoto back himself into a corner of the room, his hands splayed out against the wall and eyes wide. Kagura noticed that there was a large bruise colouring his left eye and that his glasses lay in shattered pieces at his feet next to a broken table. She smirked. 

“Has he said anything yet?” she asked Hijikata, who snorted in reply.

“You mean before your monster of a future self barged in to enact some vengeance?” he said, an eyebrow raised. “No. But the day’s not over yet.” Hijikata glanced back at the Okita family. “Oi. You want some answers or what?”

Sougo looked up from the older Kagura’s shoulder to glare at him. “Die, Hijikata,” he said, though the usual bite was negated by the smile still on his face. The Shinsengumi’s Vice Commander chuckled and said to one of the officers at the door, “we’re going to need a new table.”

While they waited, the older Kagura regaled to them her side of the story.

“We found nothing on Yamamoto Takeshi, yes,” she scowled. “No criminal record or anything. Not that it was easy to look for one. A lot of the records are just pieces of paper that look like this.” She showed them what used to be a blank report sheet and was now just ‘anpan’ maniacally scrawled over almost every white space. Hijikata’s eye twitched, looking to be in danger of popping a blood vessel. “YAMAZAKI!” He roared, and stormed out of the room. 

The older Kagura shook her head. “Anyway,” she said, putting away the paper, “I am sure I managed to search through everything, yes. Though I didn’t get to double check before somebody came down into the archives and told me what had happened.”

“And then you went to break Yama’s eye,” Kagura finished with a grin.

Her older self made a face. “Would’ve done worse if the bastard didn’t keep moving,” she said, though she high fived Kagura anyway. 

“It’s weird, though,” said Sougo, staring at Yamamoto through the one-way window. “You’d think he’d at least be listed in our records under ‘potential threat.’”

The older Kagura shrugged. “I don’t know. But I really did not find anything, yes.”

“That’s because you were looking under the wrong name,” came Kondou’s voice. Strolling into the interrogation room unabashedly late, the Commander himself showed the group the piece of paper he held in his hand. “Yamazaki managed to give me this before Toshi began chasing him down the hallway. Anybody know what that was about?”

“Nope,” said Kagura, snatching the paper. At the top left corner of the report, a mugshot of Yamamoto stared back at her, the picture missing his trademark glasses and piercing. Beside it, printed in neat letters, was the name ‘Kojima Takeshi.’

“Huh,” said the older Kagura. 

“Idiot,” said Sougo. “He kept his first name.”

They looked to the secondary room where Takeshi was attempting to squeeze himself through one of the many head-sized holes in the walls created by the older Kagura’s fist. He was roughly pulled back, however, and made to sit at the table brought in by Hijikata’s order. Kondou walked in, glancing at them through the one-way window and gesturing with his head to Takeshi.

 _'You want in on this or what?'_ he seemed to say. Kagura grinned. 

The interrogation was about to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys. GUYS. We've only got two chapters left before this story wraps up... I'm kinda sad. Sorry to leave you on another cliffhanger, but what can I say? I can be really mean sometimes, haha ;D
> 
> In honour of Meet The Okitas almost ending, why don't you tell me about the moment that made you first ship Okikagu? I'm sure we all have different stories and fond memories, and I'd love to hear them and reminisce!
> 
> I love you all so much, and I can't wait until the next chapter (which will be out in two weeks? Maybe more? Depends on how lenient school is, I've already got an assignment and it's only my first day back aasddfghjkl)!
> 
> See ya then!


	14. Lesson 14: Don't You Know? Home Is Where The Heart Is

In the basement of the Shinsengumi's main compound, Kondou Isao sat directly before Kojima Takeshi at an interrogation table, his face stoically impassive. Kagura hadn't thought the older man had it in him to be anything but kind, but evidently, the threatening of Souichirou had sparked in Kondou an angry sort of calm. 

Whatever neutrality he was meant to inspire, however, went entirely unnoticed due to the three figures standing immediately behind him. 

Having left Souichirou with Hijikata (who had arrived back in time to watch the interrogation), Sougo and the two Kaguras were now free to stare Takeshi down coldly, murder in their eyes and a promise of all the different ways they would tear him limb from limb should they suspect him of lying. 

Takeshi nervously fidgeted in his seat.

“So,” began Kondou, snapping shut the report he had been reading about Takeshi's illegal history. “It seems that despite all that effort you went to in concealing your identity, our facial recognition system is too good for you.” He tossed the report across the table for Takeshi to see. “Is there a reason why you’ve gone from racking up speeding tickets to threatening kids? My godson, might I add.”

Takeshi’s face colored an impressive shade of red. “So what if I used a fake name? Other people do it all the time! I just came to deliver my research papers when _that_ girl,” he pointed to Kagura, “began shouting for everybody to hear that I was a terrorist! _Anybody_ would have panicked! I wasn’t actually going to hurt the kid—”

“And the detonator we found in your pocket?” Kondou interrupted.

Takeshi turned even redder. “Well, that was… I-I just—”

“Forget it,” said the older Kagura, loudly cracking her knuckles. “Don’t bother with any more of your excuses. We know you paid off that store clerk to lie to us about you being a time travel expert, yes.” 

Sougo pushed up a thumb from underneath the hilt of his sword, allowing the sliver of blade to catch menacingly in the light. “Kondou-san,” he drawled, his nonchalant voice in dissension with the aura of pure malice radiating off of him, “let me have a go. I promise he’ll still be mostly intact when I’ve finished… _interrogating_ him.”

Takeshi’s eyes widened, his bruised left struggling to open against the purple, swollen skin. He looked frantically to Kondou. “Commander," he tried, desperate, "you know me! I helped you out once with that Jouishishi raid, remember? Almost ten years ago?”

Kondou paused, tilting his head before blinking in surprise. “You were that informant,” he said slowly. “The one who traded game cartridges with Katsura’s faction and then told us where we could find him.”

“ _Yes!_ ” cried Takeshi in relief. “Yes, that was me! And then I lent you those game codes! Remember?”

“No,” said Sougo, annoyed.

Kondou crossed his arms. “ _I_ do,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “And I also recall that the only reason you told us about Katsura was because you wanted your cartridges back.”

“B-but I still told you—”

“Regardless of what you did in the past,” continued Kondou, speaking over Takeshi’s stammering, “whatever allegiance you previously had with the Shinsengumi is now moot. You not only threatened the child of these three angry parents, but also placed bombs throughout our precinct during your stay here with the intention of killing us all. You are without a doubt, our enemy.”

Before Takeshi could reply, Kagura slammed a fist on the table. “Forget the terrorist talk,” she growled, having lost her patience. “What I want to know is why you lied in the first place, yes? Did you only talk to us so that you could plant your bombs, or so that you could also get the time machine?”

Takeshi made a noise of disbelief. “You have a time machine? A real one?”

Kagura roughly lifted him by the collar of his shirt. “Don’t pretend you don’t know!” she shrieked. “You stole it so you could go back in time and save your wife and child, yes?!”

“N-no!” stammered Takeshi. “That whole story was a lie! I-I knew you frequented that general store often and that you were looking for time travel related things, so I paid off the clerk and told you all that stuff so that you would really believe I was an expert! I only really wanted an excuse to enter this building!”

Kagura screamed in fury and threw Takeshi back into his chair. “If _you_ didn’t take it then who did?!”

“I don’t know! But I promise you, it wasn’t me!”

The older Kagura reached over the table to pinch Takeshi’s left eye. Over his cries of agony, the woman snarled, “your promises don’t mean anything to us, you lying sack of shit—"

“China girl,” interrupted Kondou, “that’s enough.”

The woman clicked her tongue in irritation at the interruption, but she sharply pushed away her hand from Takeshi’s face, allowing him to retreat as far back into his chair as possible to gratefully nurse his eye. Kondou steadily met his gaze. “I hope you are aware of your situation here, Kojima,” he said, his voice severe. “You just lost whatever leverage you had against us — in admitting your lack of knowledge regarding the machine’s whereabouts, you’ve effectively become worthless.”

Takeshi’s face took on an expression of alarm. “No, wait! The Jouishishi faction I work for! I can tell you everything you want to know about them—”

“To be honest,” said Sougo, already leaving the room, “none of us really care.”

Kondou stood up. “Whatever you have to say, you can relate to our Vice-Commander. Goodbye, Kojima Takeshi.” 

He and the two Kaguras followed Sougo out the door. Once on the other side of the glass, Kondou looked to Hijikata and jerked his head towards the stricken looking Takeshi. “You’re up, Toshi.”

“Finally,” Hijikata grumbled, passing an excited Souichirou over to the older Kagura. “Kid kept touching my face.” Despite his complaint, Kagura noted that he did not seem all too irritable about it. 

“You’ll save enough of him for me to dismember, right?” Sougo called after Hijikata as he made his way to the other room. The older man waved a hand in reply before shutting the door. 

“Mami was so cool!” said Souichirou, clapping his hands. “The red man cried!”

The older Kagura nuzzled her nose into his cheek, grinning as he laughed. “Thanks, Souichi.”

Kondou exhaled, crossing his arms. “So. What happens now?”

Kagura grimaced. “I guess we are back to square one.”

Suddenly, there was a large crash outside the room. “CAPTAIN!” somebody yelled, “CAPTAIN OKITA!” A second later, Yamazaki Sagaru burst into the room, breathless.

“Jimmy!” said Kagura. “You look… exactly the same.”

Yamazaki coughed. “Um. Thanks?”

“What do you want, Zaki?” said Sougo, bored.

The other man started. “Oh! Yes!” he straightened before clearing his throat. “Hiraga Gengai just called the main line, Sir. He said that your vending machine has been returned?”

The group fell into a shocked silence. Kagura looked frantically to Sougo and her older self, both of whom seemed just as floored. She sputtered to Yamazaki, "what does he mean it’s ‘been returned?! It was stolen, yes!”

Yamazaki hurriedly put up his hands in self defense. “I'm sorry, Kagura-san! All he said was that a few minutes ago, it was delivered it to his door in perfect condition and that a ‘pink paper crane’ had been left inside; after that, he hung up." 

Kagura could only stare. In her mind, she saw the library in perfect clarity.

Yamazaki glanced awkwardly between Kondou and Sougo. “So... should we go and arrest him? He _is_ a fugitive.”

Sougo unsheathed his sword, apparently having come to the same conclusion as Kagura. “Oh, _somebody_ will be arrested,” he growled, striding towards the door. “Just not Gengai.”

The older Kagura watched him go, her eyebrows raised. “Am I missing something?” 

Kondou grinned. “Go,” he said, nodding after Sougo. “And find out.” 

The older Kagura made a face, but went after her husband regardless. Before Kagura could follow, however, Kondou quickly caught her shoulder. “Ah, wait a minute, young China girl!" he said, smile softening when Kagura turned to look up at him curiously. "In case this time you actually manage to go back to your proper time... I want to say, that it’s been a pleasure — my favorite daughter-in-law.”

Kagura went red, somehow both pleased and mortified. "Gorilla! What do you think you're saying, huh?!"

Kondou laughed uproariously, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. "Ah, how I'll miss embarrassing you with that."

Despite herself, Kagura found that she had to stifle a laugh as she gave him a brief, but tight hug. “Shut up. Tell everybody I said bye, will you?”

Kondou saluted her with a cheeky grin. “Sure thing.”

She rolled her eyes, but pulled away to salute him back. “See ya' in ten years,” she said, and with a final smile, Kagura ran off to join the Okitas.

At Gengai’s garage, Sougo (who had been persuaded into holding off on Katsura’s arrest) read aloud the message left behind with the vending machine via a now unfolded paper crane. 

_"Dear Gengai-dono,_

_Last night I apparently had too much to drink, for this morning I woke up to a vending machine at the foot of my bed. Ikumatsu reminded me that I tend to go overboard during parties and that this is why she banned me from drinking alcohol in the first place—"_

Here, a part of the memo had been scrawled out. In new looping handwriting, the message underneath continued,

_"Hello Gengai-san, this is Ikumatsu._

_I apologise for Kotarou's inability to control himself and for his stealing of your machine. He does not entirely remember the incident or why he did it, but says it was nothing personal, claiming ‘it was making people sad’ and that stealing it was the only option(?). We do assume that it belongs to you due to your name and address being written on the back. We are both incredibly sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused._

_P.S. Asahi and Elizabeth say hi."_

“’Sincerely, the Katsuras,” finished Sougo, glaring angrily at Zura’s portion of the message. “God, I’m going to kill him.”

Souichirou reached up a hand to grab at the paper. “I wanna see!”

The older Kagura shook her head. “I can’t believe Zura was the one who took the machine,” she frowned. “And after all that time we spent being suspicious about Takeshi…”

“It makes sense now, though,” said Kagura, thinking of what the newspaper agency owner had told her. “That old man said he saw two figures stealing the machine. The second must have been Elizabeth, yes.” She conveniently left out how Katsura (in a drunken haze) had probably taken it because of what she had said the night before. Feeling a little embarrassed, she hastened to add, “plus, we stopped a terrorist from blowing everybody up.”

Sougo scowled. “Still going to kill him.”

“Well,” said Gengai, “doing so won’t get Kagura-chan home.” He paused to pat the machine beside him. “But this will. I’ve already calibrated it to transport you back to the exact point in time just after you left for the future. And before you ask, I ran all my checks before you got here; the crystal is inside, and nothing has been damaged.” He grinned at Kagura. “Just say the word and you can go.”

Kagura felt as if she had stopped breathing. “Like now? _Now,_ now?”

“ _Now,_ now,” confirmed Gengai. “But of course, I need to wipe your memory first.”

He took out a small metal staff about the size of his hand.

Sougo raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that the memory eraser from Men In—”

“Shut up, Okita.”

Kagura could feel a wave of panic take over her stomach. “I’m not going to remember anything?” she demanded, blanching at Gengai’s nod. “But… why? Why can’t I just keep my memories and go home?”

“Well…” said Gengai, gesturing his head to the older Kagura. “Because of her.” 

The woman blinked, taken aback. “Me?”

“You don’t remember anything about time travelling to the future," Gengai clarified. "If younger you goes back to her proper time with her memories of _this_ time, either an alternate universe would be created… or this one would cease to exist.”

Kagura no longer bothered to hide her alarm. “But I can’t go back without knowing what happens!” she said, distressed. “I need this future to be real and I need my memories to make sure everything goes the way it’s supposed to!”

Everybody went quiet. 

“Gengai-san,” said Sougo, “can you give us a minute?”

Gengai coughed into his hand. “Saburou,” he said, drawing the robot’s attention away from his game of tag with Sadaharu. “Let’s go outside.” They both left the room, leaving the Okitas and Kagura behind.

Sougo knelt before her. “You’re scared,” he said simply.

Kagura’s face colored. “So what if I am?!” she said in a hurt voice. “Is it so bad that I want this future? That I want to live in a world where Matsu-nee writes stuff in Zura’s messages, and the Gorilla says I'm his favorite, a-and Toshi pretends he doesn't care how Souichi likes him best and—and…” she stopped, sniffing and scared that if she continued, she would accidently say what she really wanted to say.

_Is it so bad of me to want a future with you in it?"_

Sadaharu nudged his nose against her head, his fur soft against her cheek. On Kagura's other side, Souichirou tugged at her arm, looking up at her with eyes the same shade of blue as her own. Unwittingly, she knelt down to meet him.

“Mami,” spoke Souichirou softly, putting a hand to her cheek. “Don’t cry.”

Sougo's mouth quirked into a smile, the movement comforting in its warmth. “What they — _we_ , are trying to say is that it’s okay to be scared; but you don’t have to be. You and me, we made this life all on our own. We didn’t need your memories, or knowledge of the future. We just… lived. And this is what we got.”

The older Kagura knelt as well. To her younger self, she said knowingly, “if there is one thing we have learned today, it is that life is out of our control. We all wake up in the morning not knowing what will happen that day because that is what it means to be alive, yes. And like all of us, you will laugh. You will cry. You will make your own choices and learn from your own mistakes. But most importantly,” she smiled, taking hold of Kagura’s hand, “you will live a future of your own unconscious making. Just like everybody else."

Kagura met her eyes. “But what if it doesn't work out the same way, yes? How do you _know_?”

Her future self grinned. “Because when you think about it, it has already happened before.”

Kagura took in the woman’s confident smile, Souichirou’s expression of concern, Sougo’s teasing eyes full of love, and in that moment, she found her home. She found her home in her future and she would find it again and again and again, because time was circular despite memories being not, and as she had lived through this, she would do so ten years after. 

“Gengai,” said Kagura, because she finally, truly understood. “I’m ready.”

She would see them again.

Gengai reappeared, everything about him the same yet different. 

He held out a hand. “Shall we?”

Kagura exhaled shakily, accepting his help with a smile and letting herself be hoisted to her feet. “Let's go.”

The older Kagura and Sougo stood up to join her at the vending machine. 

“You know what to do,” said Gengai.

Kagura reached into her pocket and took out the 600 yen Sougo had given her the day before. She inserted half into the machine. “Number ten for a cherry soda.”

She pressed enter.

The ground shook. It suddenly began to feel as if the world was collapsing in on itself.

She stole a glance behind her, seeing Sougo and her older self holding Souichirou between them and Sadaharu panting happily at their side. All four members of the Okita family were smiling. Her family.

Gengai tapped her shoulder. He held up the memory eraser. “Say cheese!”

There was a bright flash of light.

Maybe ‘collapsing’ wasn’t quite the right word.

“Bye Mami!”

Rather, she had the sense of being folded repeatedly in half whilst being simultaneously stretched as the earth shook to its very core.

“Good luck!”

She was starting to feel as if she would throw up from the unpleasantness of it all, until almost as suddenly as the awfulness began—

“See you, China.”

It stopped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END!!!
> 
> So. Still don't know who Takeshi is? I'll give you a hint - Episode 219 ;)
> 
> Also, I'm totally kidding. As if I'd leave you guys with an ending like that. Besides, according to the story summary, we still have one more chapter left! Sorry it took so long to update, but don't worry, as I said before, I am definitely finishing Meet The Okitas before the end of June in so that I can move on to other ideas that I have planned. I hope you guys are pumped and ready for the ending!
> 
> (P.S. Have you guys ever watched Ouran High School Host Club? Because I was rewatching it and Hikaru is voiced by Sougo's voice actor FFFFfFFFTtTTTTt it's the most beautiful thing, everything he says you can literally picture Sougo saying hnNnNGgg!!! aLSO, Shouyou's voice actor is voicing Professor Layton himself in the Layton's Mystery Journey anime and just. God. The cast of Gintama is everywhere I love it)


	15. Lesson 15: Epilogues Can Be Unnecessary But They're Cute So Shut Up

_I'm ready._

_I’d forgotten you were half Yato._

_I'm scared._

_A lot can happen in ten years._

_I would not mind if this turned out to be my future._

_You don’t know the first thing about caring for anybody!_

_Asahi-chan is your kid?_

_You can call me Gura-sama._

_That still does not explain why you said yes._

_She and the sadist are married, by the way!_

_I don’t like egg on rice._

_Who else would I be, you stupid sadist!_

_I. Am not. Drunk—_

The world snapped into focus.

Kagura found herself yawning hugely, stretching her arms far up above her head. Around her, Kabukicho was vibrant and alive.

“Grandpa, did you see?” came the distant shout of a boy. “That girl just disappeared and came back!”

“Haru, what did we say about pointing at strangers on the street? It’s rude…”

The voices of the boy and his grandfather faded into the crowd.

Kagura shook her head, absently rubbing at her eyes. She felt as if she had just awoken from a long nap. Frowning at the vending machine before her, she tried to remember what she was doing. What did she want to buy again?

Suddenly, the garage door next to the machine rolled upwards with a long squeal, the horrible noise promptly followed by a huge cloud of dust.

“OI!” Kagura coughed, violently waving a hand before her face. “What the hell do you think you're doing?!”

Hiraga Gengai stepped out of the garage wielding a long, wide broom. “Oh! It's Kagura-chan!” he said with a cheeky grin. “What are you doing here?”

Kagura scowled, irritably wiping her eyes. “You crack old man. I _was_ buying a soda, yes!”

There was silence.

Gengai dropped his broom. 

“You were what?!” 

Kagura looked up, blinking wearily. "What?"

Gengai rushed towards the vending machine. “You _used_ it?!”

Confused, Kagura watched on. “No?” she said, though her voice was uncertain. She was sure that she had yet to, but now that she was thinking about it, her memory of the last few minutes before Gengai’s appearance was fuzzy.

Gengai was tearing the back of the machine apart. He made a noise of horror. “You did!” he yelled accusingly. “You did use it! Look! The battery is almost all gone!”

Any concern Kagura felt for Gengai's sudden change in mood quickly disappeared. Offended at the accusation, she snapped, “listen you shitty geezer, if I said I didn’t use it then I didn’t use it!” To make a point, she shoved a hand into her pockets and pulled out all of the coins she had. “See? I still have 300 yen! _I didn’t. Use. Your machine!_ ”

Gengai looked unconvinced, but Kagura, upon seeing the confirmation in the form of her unused money, was certain. She put away her coins and stared pointedly at Gengai until he finally relented. “Fine,” he grudgingly conceded. “But _somebody_ must have! Did you see anybody go near it?”

“Nope.”

Gengai groaned, dragging a hand down his face. He looked disappointingly at his machine. “Damn.”

There was an extended period of silence. After some clear deliberation, he sighed and held out a hand. “You want this?”

Kagura glanced at the pink rock in his palm. “Why?”

“Well _I_ don’t have any use for it, since somebody used up the rest!” said Gengai, annoyed. He deposited the rock into her hand. “Take it anyway. If I keep looking at it, I’ll break something for sure.” 

He stalked back into the garage. “Saburou!” he yelled, kicking a table as he went. “Help me get this stupid vending machine inside!”

Kagura watched him go with an eyebrow raised. “What a weirdo,” she muttered, shaking her head. She held up his parting gift to the sun. Looking at it up close, she saw clearly now that it was not a rock, but a crystal. She watched the light bounce prettily off it and smiled. 

“Where’d you steal that from?”

Kagura jumped, almost dropping the crystal. She spun around, already furious — she knew that voice anywhere. Jabbing a finger into the offender's chest, she snarled, “you filthy tax robber! Do you know what you almost made me do?”

“Break something that rightfully doesn’t belong to you?” asked Okita Sougo innocently.

“It _does_ belong to me! Gen—” Kagura stopped abruptly, glancing warily to the garage next to her. She caught Sougo's eye and coughed. “Nevermind. Today’s your lucky day, sadist. I do not have time to mop the floor with you, yes.” She turned up her nose and tried to walk away.

"Ah, ah," said Sougo, smoothly reaching out and grabbing her arm. “Not so fast, China. Don’t you know I’m a police officer? It’s my job to arrest suspicious people.”

“So arrest yourself,” Kagura retorted, ripping her arm free from his grip. “Clearly you do not have anything better to do, yes?”

Sougo smirked. “That depends. What’s in your hand?”

Kagura scowled, eyeing again the garage. “If I tell you, will you take your stink somewhere else?”

“No.”

She punched him in the face. Or, at least, tried. 

Sougo caught her fist inches from his nose. “Hm,” he said, his expression smug. Kagura realised belatedly she had accidently used her right hand, the one currently holding her crystal.

“You tricked me!” she said, affronted. 

Sougo shrugged. “It’s not that hard.” 

In response to her growl, he grinned. “C’mon China,” he said, lowering her fist from his face. He did not let go of her hand. “Indulge me.”

Kagura felt her stomach jump. It did not escape her notice how to anybody else it would’ve looked as if they were simply holding hands. “You’re standing too close,” she muttered, suddenly too warm.

Sougo tilted his head. “What?”

Her face went a furious shade of red. “I said, ‘fine!’” she snapped, inexplicably flustered. She shoved her open palm under Sougo’s nose. “See? It’s not a bomb or anything. Just a rock, yes.”

“Hm,” Sougo said again. Before Kagura could try to hit him again, he added, “it’s pretty.” He met her eyes over her hand. “What are you going to do with it? I might have to confiscate it, y’know.” 

Kagura hurriedly snatched back her hand. She opened her mouth to tell him exactly what she had in mind for it when she realised that she had no actual plans. As far as she was concerned, it was just a pretty crystal. “I…" she tried, and then scowled, continuing under her breath, "...don’t know."

Sougo was silent for a long time. Then—

“A favor.”

Kagura looked up. “Huh?”

Sougo clicked his tongue. “I stopped a robbery at this jewelry store the other day — I could call in a favor with the owner and ask him to make a necklace out of it.”

Taken aback, she could only stare. Sougo flicked her forehead. “What do you say, China?’

Kagura blinked, coming back to herself. “T-that’s stupid,” she sputtered, feeling her cheeks go even redder. “I don’t even wear necklaces!”

“Even ugly gluttons like you must want nice things, right?” 

She smacked him in the chest, though not as hard as she normally would have. “Pig," she said, though there was almost a smile in her scowl. "Even if I did, a sadist like you would want something creepy in return, yes?”

“Well, duh,” he said. “Be my slave for a month and I'll call it square—”

Kagura punched him in the ribs.

“ _Shit!_ ” Sougo recoiled, his body forced a step back. “What the hell, China?!”

She turned up her nose. “That was your fault for saying such a disgusting thing, yes.”

Sougo shook his head, one hand massaging his chest. “Fine. I guess I can settle for you buying me dango.”

Kagura scoffed. “As if I have the money. I’ve only got 300 yen, yes! Choose something in my budget.”

He sighed, pushing his free hand against her face. “God, you’re useless.”

Kagura said some unkind things aloud into his palm, glaring at him through the gaps between his fingers. Sougo shifted his hand to squish her cheeks together and said, “that’s barely enough to buy a soda."

She smacked his hand away. “Then ask me to buy you a soda!”

He paused, thinking about it. Kagura was silent.

“Okay,” he said finally, tucking his hands into his pockets before walking away.

Kagura blinked. “Okay?” she repeated incredulously, watching him go. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It _means,_ ” said Sougo, glancing backwards. “Buy me a soda, China.”

He was smiling. Kagura felt her heart skip a beat.

“Stupid,” she muttered, but chased after him anyway. “Now we are talking, yes!”

“It better be an amazing drink. I’ll seriously reconsider getting your necklace made if it’s not.”

“Don’t be a baby. The cherry sodas in Edo are the best, yes. Actually… now that I am thinking about it, I’m feeling really thirsty. Will you get me one while I buy yours?”

“Do you even understand how trades work, China? You’re supposed to be buying _me_ a drink—”

“—I _am_ buying you one! I am just saying that now I want one too—”

“—Then bring more money when you go out next time, you brat—”

“--I’m broke, stupid sadist—”

Gengai watched them go from his garage, shaking his head as they bickered all the way down the road until their voices faded into the sky. “Kids these days,” he sighed, moving inside. “We’d better hope that they don’t get married, Saburou. Two monsters like that — what would their spawn even be like?”

Saburou's voice box whirred to life. “According to genetics, a child of both Kagura and Okita Sougo is most likely to inherit their father’s hair, and mother’s eyes—”

“Ah, forget it, you silly robot. That’s not what I meant. Anyway, it’s never going to happen; those brats can’t stand each other, let alone have a kid.” Gengai broke off into a loud laugh, closing his garage door. “I mean, can you imagine?”

His door shut. In the streets of Kabukicho, nobody was none the wiser.

END.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all folks!
> 
> (In some parts of the world, it's still June so _technically_... I did manage keep my promise to finish this fic by the end of the month haha)
> 
> So. Some things I wanted to say before I wrap this story up.
> 
> First of all — I don't plan on writing another plot-based, multi-chapter story. While Meet The Okitas was most certainly a tribute to my favorite Gintama pairing (and perhaps even my favorite pairing of all time), it was more an experimental trial undertaken in order to fully test my writing capabilities. As expected, I am more suited to writing wordy oneshots, a style you did not get to see from me in this story. Regardless of this, however, I had great fun pushing my skills in past tense writing and I like to think my abilities improved with each chapter!
> 
> This brings me to my second note. I have a number of oneshots and ideas lined up that I am more than eager to begin writing! Which would you be more interested in reading first?  
> 1\. An angsty Okikagu family fic with Souichirou (I'm talking character death angsty here, c'mon)  
> 2\. A fluffy Okikagu fic set in canon time  
> 3\. That Katsumatsu oneshot I promised you all ages ago  
> 4\. A collection of oneshots set in Gintama's 3Z Universe  
> 5\. A collection of oneshots set in a Harry Potter AU  
> The collections aren't ready yet, but all of these will probably be written eventually — it's just a matter of which one will be first! Let me know in the comments what fic you prefer and whichever one gets the most votes by the end of the next two weeks will be the one I start!
> 
> Speaking of comments, for my third note I wanted to say a MASSIVE thank you to everybody who commented on Meet The Okitas. Not only did they bring me a crazy amount of happiness each time I found a new one in my inbox, but they kept this story going. Many times, I felt overly self conscious about my writing, but your kind words motivated me every day to persevere. And if that wasn't enough, your thoughts and advice additionally went on to influence this fic in so many ways. I said this once to a friend (looking at you, Yuuki haha!), but at some point along the way, Meet The Okitas became a work not so much mine as it was a collaboration of unique ideas from the Okikagu fandom as a whole. Reading about your likes and dislikes regarding certain Gintama pairings, and your kind comments on how I could improve was not only interesting, but it helped this story grow! You guys are amazing, and a special shoutout goes to Cat, Bboingboo, Okikaguaru, CrystalSpe, ayolololol/suuji (I don't know your real username, you keep changing it babe stOP), eloquentelegance, silvertwilight123, RitaGarcia, sshironeko, and ishkabibble_bafflegab — you all either left comments so often or you left some at one point that absolutely made my day and I just want to say thank you so so much!  
> A special, spECIAL SHOUTOUT, however, goes to two very special people — I met them through this fic due to their leaving comments and me replying, because for some crazy reason, they just kept? Responding back? Yuuki. Mel. You put up with my long ass replies and somehow along the way, we became friends over our mutual love of Gintama. There isn't a day that goes by that I am not grateful for your friendship, because in having met you, life became just a little more colorful. I love you so much, and I hope even after this story ends you'll continue to indulge me in my rants :3
> 
> With that said, to _everybody_ who decided to scroll through a03's Okikagu tag and click Meet The Okitas, I want to say the biggest thank you I possibly can. With every hit this story got, my heart grew bigger and bigger. You guys have made writing this fic the best few months of my life and I have so much love for you all. Because of you, I was able to produce one of the greatest writings I've done, and I can't even begin to tell you how glad I am to have signed up on a03 to post this story. 
> 
> I hope you've enjoyed reading Meet The Okitas as much as I've enjoyed writing it! I additionally have a tumblr at arasei.tumblr.com if you're interested in messaging me for a chat or checking out my art/doodle tag where I've posted some Gintama related drawings. 
> 
> I wish you all the best! Until the next story!
> 
> — Arasei <3


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